Home sales in Saskatoon rebound in January

It’s a positive start to 2020 for home sales in Saskatoon and area, says the organization representing realtors in the province.

The Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA) said 219 homes were sold in the city during January, up 9 per cent from a year ago.

It’s the most homes sold in January since 2014 when there were 228 sales for the month.

SRA CEO Jason Yochim says it’s too early to tell if the trend will continue.

“The increased sales combined with lower inventories and lower than average home prices are starting to cause a price shift,” Yochim said in a statement.

The average home price for the month was $326,278, up 8.3 per cent from 2019. The HPI benchmark, which SRA says is a more accurate housing price measure, was off 0.1 per cent to $286,500.

Dragging down the benchmark price were apartment-style condos, which are off 3.7 per cent from a year ago to $166,600. All other housing types — single family, one storey, two storey and townhouse — had HPI increases ranging from 0.3 per cent to 0.9 per cent.

“We’ve seen prices steadily decreasing for some time now — with average prices up last month and MLS HPI prices virtually on par with last year, we’ll be watching closely to see if this trend continues,” Yochim said.

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SRA said the sales to new listings ratio in the city was 38 per cent in January, indicating a slight lean towards a buyers’ market.

New listings increased slightly compared to a year ago, with 571 new listings in Saskatoon for a total of 1,372 active listings, and it took, on average, 67.5 days to sell a home.