Saskatoon real estate week in review–Oct. 12-16 2009

After eight weeks of bouncing up and down Saskatoon home sales declined for the second week in a row to finish the week with fifty-nine properties sold, three fewer than last week, but still ahead of the same week last year by fourteen properties. By this time last year we had pretty much headed into less than fifty territory, and we stayed there until the third week of Januarywhen things started to pick up again. We know now that all things are possible in the Saskatoon real estate market. While some kind of a slow down is normal and expected at this time of the year I will be surprised if we don’t continue to see sales exceed those of late 2008. Recent hikes to fixed term rates may very well get some people going and we’re up against a fairly weak performance in the closing quarter of last year.

New listings of Saskatoon houses and condos slowed even more falling to just sixty-four homes, down from one hundred and six last week, and fifty percent lower than the ninety-six properties listed during the same week last year.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

Active listings in the residential category fell by thirty-six properties over the course of the week to finish at one thousand and six, down six hundred and sixty-seven units from the same time in 2008 and getting close to breaking into triple digit territory for the first time in eighteen months. While unit sales were strong in comparison to the number of new listings introduced to the inventory, the decline was pushed along by thirty properties that expired without a sale, so we may see a number of those reintroduced to the Saskatoon MLS system next week. In any case, it looks nearly certain that the inventory level will find its bottom somewhere below the thousand unit mark, and nearly as certain that it will get there by the beginning of November as an additional ninety-five properties have a scheduled expiry date between now and then. As of today, there are five hundred and eighty-four detached houses and three hundred and fifty-three condominiums displaying an active status.

Just twenty-two listings were canceled or withdrawn from the market this week and nearly half of those came back around disguised as a new listing. Is anybody fooled by this game? Forty-four home sellers adjusted their asking price.

The average selling price of a Saskatoon home took another step higher this week, gaining over ten thousand dollars from the previous week to finish at $303,111, the second highest weekly average for 2009. The six-week average moved up just one hundred and thirty dollars to $285,424, about fifteen thousand dollars shy of last year’s number when it sat at $300,599. The four-week median price spiked higher, gaining ten thousand dollars on the previous week to reach $272,900, up from $270,000 for the same week in 2008.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

The average underbid on the Saskatoon homesthat sold for less than the asking price fell slightly from $10,626 to $10,059, but the average discount as a percentage of the asking price was almost unchanged at 3.2%. Seventy-one percent of home buyers paid within ten thousand dollars of the asking price, on par with the week before. Fewer large discount sales caused the $10,001-$15,000 category to grow to nineteen percent from fourteen percent last week.

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.

Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @Norm_Fisher.

Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.

Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra