Saskatoon real estate week in review: September 1-7, 2013

It felt a bit like a late winter sales week. Saskatoon real estate agents reported just 67 firm house and condominium sales to the multiple listing service®, the lowest number since late February when the market was just ramping up for what would turn out to be a pretty solid six month run. We did see volume slip by nearly two dozen homes compared against the previous week but still found ourselves looking at a pretty decent annual increase. When comparing this week against the same week last year we were up by nine home sales.

New MLS® listings continued to come on the market at more of a spring like pace as local agents brought 154 homes to the market to match last week’s numbers. On a year-over-year basis the Saskatoon multiple listing service® saw an additional 44 homes added to the system this week, the sixth consecutive week in which new listings were well up over the previous year’s numbers.

Given that the expired listings from the final day of August fall into this week’s stats a good handful of  properties moved out of the system keeping the total number of active MLS® listings in the residential category in check. In fact, inventory slipped lower for the second week in row dropping by 14 units this week to finish at 1342 homes. That number is up more than ten percent from a year ago when just 1195 Saskatoon homes could be found bearing an active status on the MLS® system. A quick look at the various categories of housing shows that single-family homes (detached houses) are showing the greatest gains climbing from 729 at this time last year to 840 units today. Active condo listings are also up, but but far smaller numbers with the inventory growing from 393 a year ago to 412 today.

The average sale price of a Saskatoon home slipped lower for the third week in a row and reached $322,367. The median sale price took some larger lumps and slipped more than twenty thousand dollars from last week to settle at $315,000 even. The six-week average continued on to a three week slide falling nearly four thousand dollars from last week to $335,779 reaching its lowest point since April of this year. That’s down nearly sixteen thousand dollars from the number recorded for the same week last year. The four-week median also fell on a weekly basis losing more than thirty-five hundred to hold on to a year-over-year gain of about six thousand dollars.

Overbid sales picked up a little steam accounting for four of this week’s closed deals, twice the number recorded last week. Those purchasers paid an average of $3,100 more than the seller’s asking price to lock up a deal. Another nine homes closed at the full asking price while 54 of this week’s 67 firm Saskatoon real estate sales went below the asking price by an average of $8,100.

Other MLS® activity this week included 51 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 46 expired listing and 54 price adjustments.

Highlights from the news this week

Stephan Harper’s advisors play down warnings of ultra low interest rates - Financial Post
Canada’s housing market among most ‘bubbly’ in the world, Economist finds - Globe and Mail
The Smith Manoeuvre - A Canadian mortgage tax deductible plan - Globe and Mail
Why real estate doomsayers continue to be wrong - Financial Post
Immigration boosting housing sector: Report - Globe and Mail
Mortgage fears drive up Canadian home sales - Globe and Mail
Does Canada have a housing bubble?- Globe and Mail

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate