By Norm Fisher October 26, 2013 - On the heels of a week that saw Saskatoon real estate sales tumble to their lowest point since late February the local market rebounded and added an impressive 34 units to last week’s numbers. Local agents reported a total of 88 houses and condos having firmly sold to the Saskatoon multiple listing service® for an annual gain of 11 properties. After showing some very strong weekly gains for almost three months straight new residential listings remained at sharply lower levels for the second consecutive week. Saskatoon real estate agents added just 110 houses and condominiums to the MLS® system, two fewer than the previous week, but 11 more than were added during the same period of time last year.
The inventory of active MLS® listings in the residential category fell lower by nearly 30 homes when compared against the close of the previous week. As of this morning, there are 1376 residential listings, up about 18 percent from where they sat at this time last year when buyers had just 1168 homes to choose from. Today’s active listing searches show a total of 859 single-family homes (houses) and 415 condominiums. Last year at this time, those same searches produced just 702 houses and 377 condos.
Fewer trades at the upper end of the Saskatoon real estate market saw both the average price and the median price of a local home slip lower to $345,014 and $349,450 respectively. The six-week average priced trailed lower for the second week in a row losing nearly two thousand dollars to hit $351,922 producing an annual increase greater than twenty-five thousand dollars. The four week median price moved the other way and made some weekly gains, increasing by almost 5K to reach $349,900. That’s a year-over-year increase of twenty-nine thousand dollars, the greatest annual increase since late May®.
Even as units sales increased sharply over the previous week, overbid sales fell lower to just two. Those buyers offered an average bonus of $3,550 above the seller’s asking price to close up their deal. Meanwhile, another seven agreed to pay the seller’s full asking price to get their dream home off of the market. The other 79 firm deals were concluded at the negotiation table with the buyer grinding out an average discount of $12,102.
Other notable MLS® activity this week included 52 cancelled and withdrawn listings, 10 expired listings and 53 price adjustments.
Copyright Norm Fisher Royal LePage Saskatoon Real Estate