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His conclusions were echoed in a new report published Tuesday by Canada’s mortgage insurer, which found evidence of a “moderate degree of vulnerability” in the city’s housing market, an improvement from the high degree found last year.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s (CMHC) latest quarterly housing market assessment attributed the overall change in vulnerability to less evidence of overvaluation in Saskatoon, driven down by weaker prices and stronger economic growth.

“We’d need to see the demand pick up a little bit and supply to come off as well; that would start to push things into a more balanced kind of market,” said Goodson Mwale, CMHC’s senior analyst for Saskatchewan.

“Everything is tied to what’s going on in the overall economy … If the economy is faring pretty strongly and creating jobs and people’s incomes are growing … I believe in short order it would start to show signs of an adjustment occurring.”

Earlier this month, SRAR reported a “slower market” overall in 2017 compared to 2016, with the total number of sales falling five per cent, overall sales volume nine per cent and the benchmark home price reaching its lowest level since 2012 after 16 months of decline.

Yochim, however, was quick to point out that declining prices — which may yet be influenced by stricter mortgage rules that came into effect at the beginning of 2018 — should not be cause for alarm.

“Because the decline in prices and activity has been so slow, it wouldn’t appear to me to be a bubble. A bubble would be a more drastic short-term drop similar to what Calgary experienced a couple of years ago.”

Mwale said while Saskatoon continues to have a surplus of multi-family units — a persistent problem over the last several years — vacancy rates are declining and builders are pulling back on new projects.

amacpherson@postmedia.com

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