Saskatoon real estate week in review: September 27-October 1 2010

The Saskatoon real estate market continued to clip along at reasonably strong pace, given the time of year and the relentless pounding that housing is taking in the media. The month of September closed and while residential sales were below those recorded last year (-13%), the overall unit sale numbers exceeded the five-year average for the month of September (+2%). This week’s activity in Saskatoon houses and condominium sales was the busiest of the past five weeks with seventy-five homes changing hands, up just one from last weekand down ten from the same week last year.

New listingscame in a bit on the weaker side, which is expected as the weather begins to cool. Saskatoon real estate agents brought ninety-nine house and condo listings to the MLS® system, up two from last week, and five fewer than were listed during the same week in 2009.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The total inventory of residential listings took its sharpest turn and recorded its largest drop this year as September’s expired listings moved out of the system, at least temporarily. The inventory of MLS® listings dropped below 1300 for the first time since the week of May 7and closed the week at 1273, lower than last week by eighty-five but still well ahead of last year when just 1029 properties were showing an active status. As of this morning there are 766 single-family homes and 437 condominiums on the system, up from 594 and 354 respectively at the close of the same week last year.

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Thirty-six cancelled or withdrawn listings hit the system this week with twenty of those returning with a new MLS® number, and in most cases, a new price. An additional forty-eight Saskatoon home sellers adjusted their asking price in hopes of wrapping up a deal this fall. Although I don’t track price adjustments on a spreadsheet, a quick look back through previous weeks shows that forty-eight price adjustments is well towards the lower side of the scale.

This week’s numbers seem to include a decent representation of firm sales at both the upper and lower end of the market. The median selling price for the week slid lower from $340,000 to $310,000 while the average selling price of a Saskatoon home, encouraged by our fourth sale of over one million dollars this year, spiked higher again to $321,584. The six-week average selling price inched lower by less than a thousand dollars compared to last week to finish at $311,530 and record a year-over-year gain of more than $28K. The four-week median pushed higher reaching $294,000 to produce an increase of four thousand dollars over last week and beating last year’s number by $24,500.

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Overbid sales were nearly non-existent as just one Saskatoon home seller closed a deal for five hundred dollars more than the asking price. Five sellers managed a full price offer while sixty-nine of seventy-five deals closed below the list price by an average of $13,129 or nearly four percent of list.

Click the image for a larger version of the chart.

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra