Saskatoon real estate agents processed 80 firm residential sales through the multiple listing service® this week, down 16 from last week to fall short of numbers achieved over the same period last year by nine homes. Of course, this week also brought the month of September to a close. We wrapped up with a total of 364 sales to finish about 15 percent lower than last September when 427 Saskatoon homes changed hands. While those numbers represent a sharp decline compared to last September, they're actually fairly typical for the month. The five-year average, even including last year's extraordinary sales number if 367 units.
New listings continued to flow onto the MLS® at a more reasonable pace. Local agents added203 properties to the actives listings database, the same number as were added the previous week. It was one of those rare weeks during which new listings fell short of last year’s numbers. Looking back to the same period last year we see 222 new listings coming on the market.
The total number of residential properties for sale on the multiple listing service® took a typical month-end dip due to a good handful of properties that expired without a sale. We had dipped below the 2,000 mark as the inventory reached its low point for the week but by this morning the total stood at 2005, down 52 units from last week’s close, and up from 1551 at this time last year. Taking a closer look by housing type there are 1148 single-family homes offered for sale today, up from 973 a year ago. There are 686 condominiums showing an active status, up from 443 (55%) at this time last year.
Some continued weakness at the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market contributed to a lower average sale price for the week and a lower median price. Those slipped to $335,652 and $324,350 respectively. The six-week average price managed to break a six-week losing streak by taking a gain that wouldn’t buy you a nice dinner for two. It closed the week at $343,898, up from $343,817 the previous week and handily down from where it stood a year ago when it came in at $359,862. Meanwhile, the four-week median price slipped by nearly five thousand dollars to $330,000 which is on par with previous lows for the year recorded during February. That measure is down by ten thousand dollars from a year ago. A falling number of sales at the upper end of the market is definitely playing into the price declines, even skewing the numbers lower a bit. Later in the week, I’ll share some stats that I dug up in preparation for the Royal LePage House Price Survey for the 3rd quarter of 2015 that show a fairly buoyant market in the price ranges closest to Saskatoon’s average price and a pretty depressed market at the upper end.
This week at the negotiating table, 70 buyers managed to grind a discount that averaged $11,490. The largest discounts don’t amount to more than about 25K but there are some lower-end properties that took an offer ten percent below list to close the deal. Meanwhile, five sellers found a buyer willing to pay more than the list price. The average overbid of $10,640 is skewed up by some new homes sold above the asking price, most likely including additional improvements not anticipated in the asking price. The remaining five deals closed at full list price.
Other notable real estate activity this past week included 7 canceled and withdrawn listings (82 and five respectively), 124 expired listings and 83 price changes.
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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra