JOSH BUCHANAN

November 8, 2019

We have now completed 10 months of 2019 and have just 2 months remaining. The month of October produced some reasonably strong sales numbers and continued with trends we’ve been seeing in recent months. Saskatoon saw a total of 306 sales which is up by 21 compared to October of last year and listings were up just 8 units from 591 to 599. The sales-to-listings ratio for the month was 0.51 which is into balanced territory and up by 3 points from last year for October.

For the 5-year average numbers for October, this month fell short in terms of sales by 7 units and saw far fewer listings, falling by 129 units from 728 to 599. The small decline in sales but a large decline in listings allowed the sales-to-listings ratio for October 2019 to climb 8 points compared to the 5-year average ratio for October.

For the year-to-date numbers for 2019, we have now seen 3,167 sales in the city which is up by just over 100 compared to last year and listings are down by just over 100 from last year. This change in both directions has allowed the sales-to-listings ratio to increase from 0.42 to 0.45. The average sales price for 2019 so far is pretty much on par with last year, down just a nominal $600.

When looking at 5-year average numbers for YTD totals, this year has seen 187 fewer sales and 1,089 fewer listings. The average sales price is down by $16,000 from $347,708 to $331,349 and the sales-to-listings ratio is up by 3 points from 0.42 to 0.45.

Conclusion:

There are a few common trends that are continuing throughout the year. The first one is that sales numbers are actually rising from last year which is something we haven’t seen happen since 2014. The second trend is that listings continue to stay flat and not rise relative to last year. Because of these two trends, it has allowed the sales-to-listings ratio to move towards a balanced state. The final observation is that the average sales price seems to have leveled out. I’ve said this many times before, but I’ll say it again. The market is improving, the worst appears to be behind us, but we are still not in good shape. We are on the way to having a balanced market but until it has fully established itself as balanced, prices will not begin to rise again.

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