It could be a sign that house prices are starting to stabilize again in the City of Saskatoon, or it could be a temporary slow-down, but the average asking price of Saskatoon properties advertised for sale on saskhouses.com during the month of April dipped slightly from the month before.
The average asking price of Saskatoon properties on saskhouses.com was $335,899 during the month of April, a decrease of $6,490 from March's record high of $342,389.
Year over year, April's asking price was $95,067 higher than in April of 2007. That's a percentage increase of just under 40 percent.
While the increase in Saskatoon house prices has been dramatic in the past couple of years, it feels like they may be starting to level off now. The graph above shows the progressive growth in asking prices in Saskatoon since the beginning of 2007, when prices started to increase above everyone's expectations. The graph at the top of the page shows year-over-year prices - you can click on either of them for a larger view.
The average asking prices in other communities in April....Martensville - $388,492, Warman - $422,391, and Prince Albert - $210,874. It's a bit tougher to get a feel for a trend in those communities, because of a smaller number of listings each month, but the majority of houses for sale on saskhouses.com in Warman & Martensville are new homes under construction, while the
majority of homes for sale in Prince Albert on saskhouses.com are existing houses.
9 comments:
House prices down over $6,000 in April? Steady increases in inventory? Market data now out saying economy drastically underperformed in 2007 (Western Canada, including Manitoba's, worst GDP growth was Sask) in 2006 Sask lost GDP! Job losses from Feb 2007 onwards this year.
Prices are on their way down!
http://www.teamfisher.com/blogs/norm_fisher/archive/2008/04/30/saskatchewan-economy-underperforms-on-expectations.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080428/d080428a.htm
On MLS this week, only 92 properties sold, and 249 new listings were added to the market. As well, 70% sold for LESS than asking price, with only 18% overbid. The steady increase in supply, now up to 844 on MLS (and apparent increase in supply on saskhouses and kijiji) and the persistence of some saskhouses sales signs on my neigbhours' lawns all suggest:
Buyers are refusing to overbid
Sellers are reluctant to accept the reality of the current market
Prices are going further DOWN in May
Out of province demand dried up
The andecdotal Alberta to Saskatoon migration is likely over, as they realize university educated people make $9,000 more a year there and houses here are no longer cheaper, that is our relative cost of living is now HIGHER in Saskatoon than Alberta.
Plus their lower income taxes.
http://www.teamfisher.com/blogs/norm_fisher/default.aspx
Hi Dougy,
While there are a lot of houses on the market, both with MLS, and with saskhouses.com, sales are still brisk, and the market is still strong.
We had 114 of our sellers mark their properties "sold" during the month of April (a record for us), and 24 of our sellers have marked their properties "sold" during the first four days of May. Many others have accepted offers, and all the reports we have heard about open house turnouts is that there are still a lot of buyers shopping around.
I think prices in this area are starting to stabilize, but I don't think you are going to see any huge decreases anytime soon.
Like it or not, the Saskatchewan economy is still doing well, and the demand for housing in Saskatoon and most other areas of the province is still high.
And it's not just people from Alberta who have been moving to Saskatchewan. They are coming from across the country, and around the world. I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.
Dale
www.saskhouses.com
Do you have any stats on how many of your houses wind up listed MLS? I've personally noticed many houses that were previously on saskhouses wind up listing through realtors in the end. Do your statistics allow for those homes, or are they posted as sold through your numbers? Many realtors ask folks to delete the ad from saskhouses, so I was just wondering how you count those listings in your numbers?
Hi Anonymous,
The usual process when one of our customers decides to list their home with a Realtor, is that the customer will contact us and ask that their listing be removed from the website.
At that point, we would "de-activate" the listing. Unless the customer calls to "re-activate" the listing, it would not show up in our "sold" statistics, and would not be posted as "sold" on our website.
Note that our ads are non-transferrable, so all of the ads on our website (to the best of our knowledge) are being presented for sale by the original sellers.
We don't keep track of how many saskhouses.com listings end up on MLS, but the percentage is pretty low - I would estimate somewhere between 5 & 10 percent of our total listings.
And that percentage is offset by listings that come to us the other way - after customers have tried unsuccessfully to sell with the help of an agent, and end up selling on their own.
Dale
www.saskhouses.com
I am an out of town investor with rental properties in Saskatoon. I agree that the market has taken quite a run and is due to level off a bit but I'm not selling now. The prices still are not outrageous at all compared to where I'm from and I see that rents have definitely risen over the last six months. Will we continue to see 20%+ increases? No but 8-11% sounds about right for the next number of years. The fundamentals are just too strong in Saskatchewan that I just don't want to be out of the game - in fact, they are better than Alberta which is losing its competitive advantage at least in terms of corporate taxes. I see the Bakken oil reserves are just starting to attract attention so more tax $$ for the government of Saskatchewan to spend on infrastructure etc. The boom really has only been going for two years at the most so there is some lag time for it show up in the stats (although 2007 Sask. GDP growth looks quite strong to me and only second to Nfld).
I have had businesses in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta still has the best tax and business environment.
Saskatchewan will see oil development but will never see the high paying head office jobs that Calgary enjoys.
Government revenues don't translate into high paying jobs for ordinary citizens. Just ask the typical Albertan if he feels wealthy.
Again, Bakken oil fields near Estevan, NOT Saskatoon. Potash good, near Saskatoon, but evidence suggests increasing inventories and oversupply of potash leading to weakening prices.
Vancouver Sun and Royal Bank both think Saskatoon and Regina housing markets are going to be a "Not" soon.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=15b7dec7-1936-4081-8ca9-029cb6238856
And Alberta does have much higher average wages (median) for the everday worker, so if you make $10,000 more a year your Alberta house prices should be higher than your Saskatchewan house prices ... which now they aren't always.
Large increases in real estate inventory suggest MANY other speculators/absentee land lords from Alberta ARE selling now, especially, now that it appears housing list prices have decreased for 2 consecutive months AND buyers are now bidding UNDER asking, 75% of MLS properties sold for LESS than list last week, and this has been a trend for the last month and a half.
So...
Sellers listing for less April/May
Buyers paying less than already lower listing ...
Sounds like a BUYER's market to me!
About time. Annoying to have to wait out the over valuation "Markets in the West, which have risen the furthest above their underlying values" but sounds like people are realizing how overpriced Saskatoon WAS and don't want to buy now at the peak, and are waiting for the price correction that appears to be starting
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=15b7dec7-1936-4081-8ca9-029cb6238856
Apparently Royal Bank is predicting further declines in demand and selling prices:
http://www.rbc.com/economics/market/pdf/citytrend.pdf
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