Homes continued to sell at a blistering pace in Saskatchewan in March, with strong demand and decreasing volume pushing prices upward in most markets, according to the Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA).
There were 1,719 homes sold this March across Saskatchewan, which is up over 85 per cent from last March, while homes sold year-to-date (YTD) also jumped to 3,795 units compared to 2,208 homes last March, an SRA news release said.
The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) composite indicates that home sales also increased this year to $278,400 from $255,800 last year.
“We’ve never seen a March like this before,” Chris Gbekorbu, SRA economic analyst, said in the news release. “In fact, we typically don’t see this level of sales until at least May, and until June of last year, we hadn’t seen this level of sales since March of 2014.”
Strong demand combined with a shrinking number of homes for sale has placed upward pressure on prices in most markets. The HPI composite was up in 13 of the 15 markets — Estevan and Weyburn declined while Meadow Lake and North Battleford saw the greatest increases — while sales were up in 22 of 24 markets.
“Although we continue to see supply shrink as inventory levels keep falling, the increase in new listings across most markets is very promising,” Gbekorbu said.
With supply shrinking and demand continuing to outpace supply, new listings are important to keep the market growing, he continued. As new listings fell in January and February, there was the potential for new listings to dry up and further reduce home supply. However, “people are still listing homes on the market, and they still want to buy — sometimes leading to homes being sold within days of being listed.”
As a result, the market remains strong and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down yet, he added.
Moose Jaw real estate data
Sales in Moose Jaw were up 93.5 per cent this March over last March, increasing to 60 units sold from 31 units sold. This increase is above the five-year average of 41 units sold and above the 10-year average of 43 units sold, the SRA data showed.
Year-to-date, sales in Moose Jaw have risen to 134 units sold compared to 80 units last year.
Sales volume was up 107.8 per cent in the city, jumping to $14.1 million this past March compared to $6.8 million last March, the SRA data showed. This sales volume is also above the five-year average of $9.7 million and above the 10-year average of $10.6 million.
YTD sales volume in Moose Jaw was $29.3 million, which was an increase from last year of $17.6 million.
The number of new listings this past March fell slightly to 86 units from 87 units last March. This number is below the five-year average of 99 new listings and below the 10-year average of 94 new listings.
YTD new listings decreased to 71 units from 75 units, while active listings fell to 187 homes from 255 units.
Inventory in Moose Jaw stood at 3.1 months this past March, compared to 8.2 months during the same time last year and below the five-year average of 6.7 months, the data showed. Meanwhile, the sales to listing ratio was 69.8 per cent, suggesting that market conditions favour sellers.
Homes in Moose Jaw stayed on the market an average of 62 days in March, down from 86 days last year and below the five-year averages of 72 days.
The SRA data also showed that home prices in Moose Jaw increased to $214,800 this March from $207,500 last March.
