Posted by Norm Fisher on September 4, 2010
Following three weeks of increasing sales the Saskatoon real estate market slowed again and firm sales of houses and condominiums slipped to sixty-eight units, down eleven from last week, and well below the 102 properties that changed hands during the same week last year.
New listings moved sharply in the opposite direction as local agents brought [...]
Posted by Riel Syrenne on September 2, 2010
I had the opportunity to help a few clients purchase a home who had the interpretation they would not be able to enter the housing market for another year. These clients had solid credit, good job stability but they lacked one of the most common first time buyer requirements, a down payment.
In these, like all [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on September 1, 2010
The Saskatoon Region Association of REALTORS® (SRAR) released the residential real estate statistics for August of 2010 today, accompanied by this release.
Saskatoon REALTORS® assisted 313 buyers with the purchase of a home in the month of August. This number was down 20% from August 2009 when 392 homes were sold. Year to date, 2527 homes [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on September 1, 2010
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Canada is experiencing a housing bubble that is destined to pop. In a recently released report, the non-profit research group examines house price growth in six Canadian markets and puts forward a few scenarios of how prices might be affected when the bubble bursts.
Canadians are becoming [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on September 1, 2010
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released their 3rd quarter Canadian housing forecast this morning. With hundreds of billions of dollars riding on insured mortgages, nobody will claim that CMHC doesn’t have a fair bit of skin in the real estate market and is not exactly an unbiased source. Just the same, they have a [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 28, 2010
For the third consecutive week Saskatoon real estate sales picked up some steam as agents reported seventy-nine detached house and condominium sales to the multiple listing service, up eleven units compared to last week. It was the first week since early May that we actually saw sales grow on a year-over-year basis. Sixty-five Saskatoon homes [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 28, 2010
When I first entered the real estate business in 1993 it was common to find improvements in homes that were completed without a required permit. At the time, it just wasn’t a big deal to move ahead with your basement development without one. Almost everyone did it.
In recent years, the failure to obtain proper permits [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 21, 2010
Saskatoon real estate sales were up again from last week, but not by much. Firm sales of detached houses and condominiums rose by two to reach sixty-eight units. This week’s sales fell far short of the number traded during the same week last year when 114 Saskatoon homes picked up a sold sign.
New listings, on [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 21, 2010
I’m a bit disturbed by the increasing occurrences of verbal negotiations in the real estate business in Saskatoon.
Verbal proposals are most often brought forward at the counter offer stage with comments like, “We really don’t want to waste your time, so would you speak with your client and find out if X is acceptable to [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 15, 2010
Saskatoon real estate sales were up from last week, and listings were down, but a large gap remained between the two in spite of the slightly improved numbers.
Local real estate agents reported sixty-six sales of single-family detached houses and condos during the past week, a gain of thirteen from the previous week but well below [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 7, 2010
Wow! Following a couple of strong sales weeks that brought July’s overall sale numbers in line with the five-year average, sales of Saskatoon single-family homes and condominiums plummeted this week, slipping to just fifty-three units, the lowest number for any week since the first week of March. Saskatoon real estate agents placed a sold sign [...]