The Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA) says year-over-year sales across the province last month were up over 56 per cent from July 2019.
A report on last month’s residential housing statistics was released earlier this week.
Although prices were down in some markets, the number of sales were up in all markets and the number of new listings were up in all except the Yorkton region, year-over-year.
The highest year-over-year increase in the number of sales for the month of July was 142.9 per cent in Weyburn, going from seven in July 2019 to 17 in July 2020.
SRA said this suggests that the province’s real estate sector is doing quite well despite the impact the COVID-19 pandemic and it has recovered in two to three months.
Across the province, the median sale price was up 2.7 per cent year-over-year for the month but was down 0.9 per cent year-to-date.
Inventories were also down in all markets, suggesting that people are still eager to buy and take advantage of the opportunities that exist, according to SRA.
“Members are still receiving multiple offers and some properties continue to be sold almost as soon as they’re listed,” said SRA CEO Jason Yochim, suggesting that there is still pent-up demand.
While there has been an uptick in the number of novel coronavirus cases in Saskatchewan, SRA said precautions put in place earlier this year seem to have reduced anxiety.
“When the pandemic hit, we put measures in place to make sure that our members and their clients would be safe while buying homes… and we’re seeing how effective those measures have been. People feel safe and they’re buying,” Yochim said.
SRA said the strong performances seen in June and July, supported by increasing confidence in the real estate sector, is promising for August as well.