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Saskatoon real estate week in review: March 1-5 2010

Firm sales of Saskatoon homes continued to follow last year’s trend line through the first week of March as real estate agents reported a total of fifty-three house and condo sales to the local MLS system to bring a gain of five units compared to the previous week and finishing up by four homes compared to the same week last year.

New listings spiked higher as the week produced the largest number of house and condo listings we’ve seen so far this year at 155 homes, including thirty-two apartments at one address, currently being constructed in University Heights.

The inventory of Saskatoon real estate listings pushed higher for the fifth consecutive week and broke the nine hundred mark for the first time since late October of last year. Inventory appears to be producing a trend line that looks quite similar to what we’ve seen over the past couple of spring seasons. At this point, I think it’s anyone’s guess as to where that line will peak but it does look like we now have a bit of upward momentum as total listings grew by sixty-eight properties over the previous week.

While buyers are not yet clearly demonstrating the spring itch to buy, sellers are definitely getting ready for a rush that they hope will come soon. The single-family home category saw a net gain of twenty-five, while condominium inventory grew by thirty-two. The balance of the growth occurred in “other” residential categories like duplexes, semi-detached homes, etc. Today, there are 903 active residential MLS listings compared to 1,313 properties that were listed at the same time last year.

Cancelled and withdrawn listings came in at twenty-four and eleven of those quickly returned as a new listing. Thirty-seven sellers took a different approach and simply adjusted the asking price hoping to catch the interest of an eager buyer.

Prices continued on a downward trend for the second week in a row as twenty condo sales and a handful of single-family homes priced below $200K moved the average lower by nearly thirteen thousand dollars on a week-over-week basis to $263,513. The six-week average lost a bit of ground on the week moving about sixteen hundred dollars lower to $288,052, up from $276,503 for the same week last year. The four-week median was pretty stable from one week to the next but showed a twenty thousand dollar gain from the same time last year as it closed the week at $287,970.

Click the image for a larger version of the graph.

Overbidding, which hasn’t been much of a factor to date this year was even less popular this week as just five buyers stepped up and offered more than the asking price. Those that did took a fairly reserved approach offering a premium of just $740 on average to sew up the deal. Forty-six of fifty-three sales reported a final sale below the sticker price by an average of $8,573 or 3.5 percent below asking, a larger discount then we’ve seen for many weeks. Interestingly, the larger pricier properties saw the most heat this week. Those that took overbids averaged a price of $416,640 while those that sold below the list price traded at just $240,663 on average.

Highlights from the news this week

Canada’s fourth quarter growth fastest since 2000
New tone from the bank of Canada
Home building to pick up speed: CMHC
Bank of Canada holds rates, raises possibility of near-future hike
Real estate starts to soar (local)
New mortgage rules – The impact according to Benjamin Tal
City building permits drop in value (local)
Housing industry says fed budget ignores calls for home affordability
Bond yields catapult higher (higher fixed mortgage rates ahead?)
How to lose money on real estate moves
Renos gone wrong

A map displaying the boundaries of Saskatoon real estate areas is here.
An overview of data collection and calculation practices for our statistical reports is here.

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate