Saskatoon real estate sales and new listings both continued to soften this week, something that can pretty much be counted on to happen at this time of the year. Local REALTORS® produced 72 firm residential transactions for a decline of nine compared to last week and down eight from the same week a year ago. More notably, while the number of new listings added to the MLS® fell just nine from a week ago to 159, they recorded an annual decline of 44 property listings.
The total number of active MLS® listings in the residential category took its largest single-week decline in well over three years largely due to the loss of 158 listings that met the end of the allotted term without a sale during the final week of September. By this morning 1852 properties remain for sale, down from 2005 at the same time last year. For the first time in at least two years, the number of active condominium listings fell lower on an annual basis as it slipped to 695, down 31 units from the previous year’s tally. Single-family homes inventory sits at 1004 this morning, down from 1090 a year ago.
Based on single-family home sales for the most recent 30 days (229 units), the current absorption rate is 4.38 months, a balanced market. Looking more closely at single-family homes inventory priced below $450K and that measure drops to just 3.7 months, right into seller’s market territory. On the other hand, with detached homes priced above $500K we see an 8.3 month supply, which, while large, is not unusual in this range. It often hovers in the 10-14 month range even during some of our highest sales volume years. I think this segment of the market will perform pretty well as the number of new homes that are completed and unabsorbed continues to fall as it has pretty consistently this year. At the close of August, those numbers were down nearly 30 percent on an annual basis.
Condos continue to struggle in buyer’s market territory with an 8.3 month supply across all price ranges (695 listings/84 sales). The situation is worst at the low end of the market with a near 14 month of supply of condos valued at $200,000 or less. That supply falls to nearly half of that (7.2 months) when we look at condos prices above $200,000. This segment will likely struggle for some time yet as the supply that is under construction or completed and unabsorbed (up 40 percent annually) sits at very lofty levels.
Following a week during which an unusually large number of lower-end sales hit the mix, a return to a more typical balance between upper and lower end sales saw the weekly median price recapture last week’s losses to close at $355,000. Meanwhile, the average sale price of a Saskatoon home fell just shy of reaching a high point for the year as it soared to $385,067. The lofty average was largely driven by the sale of a property that boasted a final price tag of $2,310,000 to take the prize as the highest priced Saskatoon residential property (Areas typically defined as 1 through 5) to ever be reported to the multiple listing service®. The six-week average price of a Saskatoon home, following six weeks of steady declines turned upward and grew by seven thousand dollars this week to reach $352,274 and finished higher on an annual basis by eight thousand dollars. The four-week median price, which has been more stable than the long-term averages reached $345,000. That’s up ten thousand dollars from last week and as high as it has been at any time this year. Further, it’s up fifteen thousand dollars from where it sat at this time last year. That’s the largest year-over-year increase in the four-week median price since the closing week of 2015.
Eight of this week’s sales closed at the seller’s asking price while four went for more by an average of $5500. Buyers managed to grind themselves a deal in 60 of the 72 completed contracts netting an average discount of $10,984.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
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