Saskatoon real estate week in review: August 25-31, 2013

By Norm Fisher August 31, 2013 - Saskatoon homes continued to trade at a reasonable pace this week. Local real estate agents reported 89 house and condominium sales to the Saskatoon multiple listing service®, up three from last week and ahead of sales recorded during the same week last year by 21 homes. The number of new MLS® listings added to the system declined by ten units compared to the previous week for a total of 154 properties, still well above seasonal norms. During the same period of time in 2012, 117 properties were added to the MLS® system.

In spite of the sales to listing ratio, the number of active residential listings on the Saskatoon multiple listing service® managed to fall. The last couple of days of any month generally see a higher than normal number of listings come to the end of their term. The dozen or so that expired last night at midnight helped bring the numbers lower to settle at 1356. That final total is 24 fewer than we had at the close of the previous week but 156 more than were available at the close of the same week last year. It’s also worth mentioning that it’s the highest level of inventory for this particular week since 2008 when the total number of Saskatoon real estate listings in the residential category sat at 1676. Today’s totals include 835 single-family homes and 415 condominiums. Going back to the final week of August last year, those two categories stood at 737 and 392 respectively. That’s a 14 percent increase in available houses and a more modest seven percent growth in condo numbers.

A strong week for entry level sales, not to mention a fairly soft performance for homes priced above $500K, prompted both the median sale price and the average sale price lower. The median edged down nearly fourteen thousand dollars from last week while the average shed a little less than ten thousand to finish the week at $335,610. Meanwhile, the six-week average selling price of a Saskatoon home fell $5,432 from last week to $339,377 and reached it’s lowest point since late March to make a rare appearance below last year’s number for this particular week, $345,708. The four-week median price managed a gain of a bit more than four thousand dollars to close the week at $339,150 and claim a year-over-year increase of $12,650.

The number of homes that traded above the seller’s asking price slipped to just two, but large overbids were the order of the day in this category netting the seller an average bonus of $11,350. Another 14 deals closed at the full asking price while 73 of this week’s committed buyers ground themselves a bit of a deal netting an average discount of $9,192 through their negotiation.

Other MLS® activity this week included 76 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 22 expired listing and 65 price adjustments.

Copyright Norm Fisher Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate