The average asking price of a Saskatoon listing on Saskatchewan's leading website for private home sales reached a new record high during the month of March.
The average asking price of Saskatoon listings on saskhouses.com during the month of March was $342,389, an increase of almost $14,000 from the average asking price in February, and a remarkable increase of $124,797 - or 57 % - from the average asking price of Saskatoon listings in March of 2007.
Prices have risen dramatically in communities across the province. For example - the average asking price of saskhouses.com listings in Martensville in March was $361,342, in Warman it was $358,538, and in Prince Albert, the average asking price was $259,390.
How long prices will continue to rise remains to be seen, but the demand for housing still seems to be out-stripping the supply.
You can click on the graph for a larger image.
15 comments:
According to a newish Royal Lepage survey, In Saskatoon it's $30,000 more for 2 story home, $10,000 more for bungalow than Edmonton. Average wages higher in Alberta than Saskatchwan, about $700 to $800 more per month (almost $10, 000/ year) and prices cheaper there? Despite $1.23/Litre Gas? Prince Albert's prices up, despite huge mill closure? Do we really think these are justified or sustainable prices?
http://www.royallepage.ca/CMSTemplates/AboutUs/Company/CompanyTemplate.aspx?id=1746
Prince Albert's Average price is about $250, 000. In a tanking economy!
Sorry, but Prince Albert's economy is not tanking... Get you facts straight.
I find it funny how you guys tout your amazing average asking price of your homes, but there is no mention of what they actually sell for. I'm sure there are people who do alright on here, i mean come on in a hot market it might not be to difficult. When things tighten up though, people are almost always leaving money on the table, for what, the pride of selling on their own. Congrats!
Hi Scott,
We promote our asking price, because we don't know what the final selling price of most of the homes on our website was. (We aren't involved in the actual transactions or negotiations)
We do know though, that our asking prices & the MLS selling prices have been increasing at pretty much the same rate, we know that many of our customers are selling for more than they were asking (because they call to tell us after the sale), and we know that the vast majority of our sellers are happy with the prices they received for their homes, or they wouldn't have accepted the offer.
Yes, our sellers do feel a lot of pride in being able to sell their own homes.
If what you are saying about sellers leaving money on the table by not using a real estate agent is true, then wouldn't buyers would be wise to shop privately?
Dale
www.saskhouses.com
Dale. You are absolutely right. It would be wise for a bargain hunter to shop privately. Because the buyer can then save the commission right. At the end of the day the seller in most cases renegotiates to sell the house, so in essence the seller had paid a commission but instead of paying it to someone to sell their home, it was to the buyer to buy the home.
Don't get me wrong, i think there is a need for your site. I just believe and rightfully so you only tell the good, not the bad or the ugly. There is a extreme amount of risk in selling privately, why don't you see more people representing themselves in court, or self diagnosing an illness? Because there is tremendous risk in not consulting the right people.
Thanks,
Scott
Scott,
I don't think you can generalize that private sellers are selling their homes for less money than people who use real estate agents. Every sale is unique, whether you use an agent, or sell privately.
We do emphasize the positive aspects of selling privately, and you emphasize the positive aspects of using an agent, and there are positives, and sometimes negatives to both.
But in the almost 9 years that we have been doing this, we have had zero ugly stories. You say there is an extreme amount of risk in selling privately, but we have seen no evidence of that.
I also disagree with your comparison of selling your own home to diagnosing your own illness, or representing yourself in court. It's like those television ads which are running now which try to make people who are selling their own homes look silly, or even stupid.
I think most people are very aware of current market conditions, and that most people are plenty smart enough to sell their own homes, if that is what they decide to do.
Not to over-simplify, but selling a property is like selling anything else. You need to find a buyer, and negotiate a price & conditions. Then you need to use a lawyer, to make sure everything is transferred properly & legally. Just like you would if you use a real estate agent, right?
Thanks for your comments,
Dale
www.saskhouses.com
Yeah, everyone is moving to Prince Albert...
And saskhouses.com houses seem to be more expensive than on MLS, comparing a few identical condos in my area ...
And apparently available inventory is approaching March 2006 (pre boom, ie half price) levels, while demand is weakening...
People in Edmonton make a lot more money on average and now have cheaper housing, why would anyone move to more expensive Saskatoon, to make a lot less, and live in the second most dangerous city in Canada? (Regina number one)...
http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080312_110944_110944
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/03/13/miffed-mcleans.html
People can say all they want about Saskatoon, but it's surpassed a lot of nicer, higher paying places in house prices. A big part of the reason people tolerated living hear or Regina is they could afford a house...
The stories published here seem one sided. Granted, you are in the business of selling houses, but I see nothing of recent articles in both national newspapers e.g National Post http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=452827 talking about the market topping out and Western Canada leading the down turn.
There is some Fisher real estate, guy who does publish stories and analyze data that is not always pro buy a house right now. It would not be inappropriate to mention such national news stories, especially given that Saskatoon is likely soon to top out, buyers (hold off) and sellers (sell fast near the peak price) may both want to know this information.
Hi Dougy,
A link to the story you are talking about is posted on our home page under "Saskatchewan Real Estate News".
We do provide links to both positive and negative news stories about real estate, but until the last few weeks, almost all of the stories have been about rising prices and increased sales, at least in this part of the world.
Dale
www.saskhouses.com
Scott, I hope you are not lumping real estate salespeople in with doctors and lawyers. There is only about 7 years more education required to become a lawyer, doctor or accountant.
What are the risks associated with selling privately? Lawyers are specializing in this. For about $500- $700, they consult and handle all the paperwork and money transfers.
I sold my house through this site for more than I asked. My legal fees were about $200 more than if I had a real estate agent prepare some of the paperwork. Compare that to about $8000 I saved in real estate fees.
Oh, and I am an accountant.
Bill
Maybe 7 years to be a CA, with 4 years of school + 3 paid casbi (or something like that years)
Minimum to be a doctor is 4 years, after a degree, of school and then a few more years of their paid internship. I think they have accounting beat be a solid 4 years.
But yeah, either way, both seem much longer than real estate. Maybe if I had done one of the two, I wouldn't be so worried about moving to Alberta to make more money so I could have afforded a house.
Dale said "But in the almost 9 years that we have been doing this, we have had zero ugly stories. You say there is an extreme amount of risk in selling privately, but we have seen no evidence of that."
I've posted a bunch of comments about shady dealings involving people listing on this website during my house hunt last year. All of my comments were removed.
Hi Blake,
When I say that in our 9 years of doing this, we haven't had any ugly stories, I mean that we haven't heard of any cases of real estate fraud, improper transactions, or lawsuits resulting from properties being sold through our website.
Yes, we have heard stories from some buyers who weren't happy with how some individual sellers handled the sale of their properties, but those stories have been few and far between. We advise all of our sellers to try to treat all potential buyers as fairly as possible, but every now and then, someone has a bad experience.
Because we simply provide advertising, and are not involved in the actual negotiations or transactions, we have no control over how those transactions are handled.
I don't recall the specifics of the comments you tried to post which were rejected, but our general rule of thumb is that we will post comments, as long as they can be substantiated, and aren't too nasty in their nature. (We do get those every now and then from people who really don't like our website)
And the other thing I'm reluctant to do is to post a negative comment from someone who won't put their name to it. Not sure if that was the case with your previous posts or not, but those are the general rules I follow when posting comments on the blog.
Dale Neufeld
www.saskhouses.com
One must also take into account the quality of life. Even if it is true that the average wage is a bit less in Saskatoon and the housing a bit more than in Alberta, you then have to ask yourself if you want to live in Calgary? Do you enjoy going just about anywhere in Saskatoon in 10-15 minutes as opposed to spending an hour to get from a house at the the edge of the city to downtown?
Also - "I hope you are not lumping real estate salespeople in with doctors and lawyers" - I agree. Ask a surgeon to sell his/her house and ask a real estate agent to perform open heart surgery on his/her significant other. I have a feeling one would be successful while the other wouldn't know where to begin. Selling a house, especially in this market, is not rocket science. Do some homework, use common sense and you will be fine.
Check out this link. Apparently, last year, 2007, Saskatchewan's economy actually grew the least (2.8% of any western canadian province) and in 2006 the economy (GDP) actually shrunk 0.4% in Saskatchewan! Seriously, the economy here (after shrinking in 2006) grew by less than BC, Alberta and Manitoba in 2007!
http://www.teamfisher.com/blogs/norm_fisher/default.aspx
Don't believe Royale Lepage?
Check Stats Canada for yourself:
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080428/d080428a.htm
And the quality of life here is awesome, hence the country's highest violent crime rate overall according to Stats Canada again, second to Regina in dangerousness if you look at which violent crimes are worse by Maclean's (although Saskatoon leads the pack in sexual assaults)
http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080312_110944_110944
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