Saskatoon Housing Market Update – August 2016
August shaped up to be a pretty good month, with Saskatoon realtors reporting a 13% increase in $ sales compared to August 2015. After several months of negative trends, this is welcome news for many in the industry. Year-to-date, we are still trending down compared to 2015 on unit sales and $ sales. Including August, our market is down 7% for units sold as compared to 2015.
On the pricing side, things are still looking relatively flat for Saskatoon. The overall numbers (MLS Home Price Index) show a decline of under 1% for the past 12 months. However, if you look at specific housing type, it tells a different story. Apartment style condos have been the biggest challenge with a price reduction of 5.6% compared to August 2015. Meanwhile, single family homes have been essentially flat and townhouse prices have come up about 2% in the last 12 months.
Inventories have tightened somewhat, and we were carrying under 2000 listings at the end of August. While this is above the 5 year average of 1,634 units, it has come down from previous months. With housing starts down, we expect this number to continue to trend down over the next 12 months. The average days to sell a home in August were 47, and houses are selling for 97.2% of the list price.
Overall, the market seems to be tightening slightly, and prices are holding. But, be careful with overall number and averages. We are seeing the markets for specific housing types and price ranges behave quite differently. If are you looking for advice on buying or selling in Saskatoon, please contact me for further information.