Watch above: It’s not like it was three years ago in Saskatoon when you put a house on the market and it sold almost immediately. Joel Senick finds out what the latest survey has found and what it means for both buyers and sellers.
SASKATOON – ReMax realtor Kevin Goyer says selling a home in Saskatoon today isn’t like it was three years ago.
“We had a lot less supply in the market place, homes were moving a lot quicker and prices were increasing at kind of a steady rate,” said Goyer, in front of one of his listed properties in Hampton Village.
Statistics Canada released a report Tuesday, stating Saskatchewan led all provinces in residential property growth in 2012. The province had a 9.7 per cent growth rate from its 2011 figures.
READ MORE: Saskatoon’s apartment vacancies climb as economic conditions weaken
“Our population was increasing, we were seeing strong economic times, because of that there was more demand for properties, there was a shortage of supply,” said Kimberly Maber, a real estate appraiser with Brunsdon Junor Johnson Appraisals.
Real estate insiders say Saskatoon’s housing market has now leveled off. In June, the Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors said the average house price remained virtually unchanged. It also found houses were taking on average 45 days to sell in the city.
The association found there were roughly 2,100 houses on the market as of early July.
“You have to price the home right because there’s so many other homes for sale probably in that category,” said Goyer, who added that homes would usually sell within a month in 2012.
“If you’re not priced right, you won’t sell.”
READ MORE: Saskatoon housing sales drop, prices remain stable
There are a number of theories as to why the housing market ended up in a more saturated state than three years ago. Daphne Taras, dean of the University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business, says prices increased too drastically and “now things are getting a little more normal.”
“I very strongly believe that there was an oversell of the idea of ‘Sask-a-boom’ and that drove prices up far higher than perhaps the market should have had given its size and composition,” said Taras.
“This is a nice period of stability this province is going through,” she added.
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