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Home prices in Saskatchewan have reached a record high, driven by supply lagging behind demand, according to the province’s Realtors’ group in its monthly update.
The Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA) reports that the province reached a new residential benchmark price of $381,100 in May, breaking last month’s record high of $374,300.
High demand and low supply are impacting the housing market all across the province, said Chris Guérette, CEO of Saskatchewan Realtors’ Association, adding that it is a trend that traces back to the early days of the pandemic and is inverse to what the rest of the country is seeing.
“When we’re taking a look at other parts of the country, we’re seeing that the market is slowing, and inventory numbers are rising and that has not happened yet in Saskatchewan. We’ve not had any ease in the market at all,” she said.
Across the province, SRA reports 2.2 months of supply, or around 3,400 available units heading into June — marking an increase of around 300 units from last month, but nearly a 50 per cent dip below the 10-year average.
The association says that Saskatoon has the “tightest market conditions” in the province, recording 519 sales in May. This figure is down four per cent from the previous year, but over 10 per cent higher than the decade average.
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Saskatoon set a new benchmark price record at $444,400 in May, up from $433,200 in April, marking an increase of 3.2 per cent.
“Saskatoon is now more expensive than Edmonton. And so I suspect if the trend keeps going, we’ll see Saskatoon surpass even places like maybe Calgary, Winnipeg, et cetera,” said Guérette.
The SRA reports the average price of total residential sales in Saskatoon for May was $472,701. Meanwhile, in the City of Edmonton, the average home sale price was around $455,000, according to that city’s Realtors’ group. Edmonton’s benchmark price for the same period was $414,000, according to the Realtors’ Association of Edmonton.
Saskatoon is also facing a supply shortage. Going into the month of June, it had around 1.6 months of supply, or around 1.1 months when accounting for conditional sales, according to the SRA.
Saskatoon’s second-largest bedroom city, Martensville, located around a 20-minute drive north, is also reporting low housing supplies. Last month, the SRA reported that the city had just over a month’s supply at 1.29 — an increase from only 22 days in April.
While bedroom communities are commonly known for their smaller size and more affordable housing options, this narrative is quickly changing.
“They disappear as soon as they’re on the market,” said Spencer Nikkel, a councillor for the City of Martensville, adding that houses are commonly sold within one day.
The low supply is also affecting Realtors’ businesses across the province, with Guérette saying many report as few as four listings a month.
“They’re working a lot harder for the same remuneration, essentially,” she said.
Buyers looking to settle down may now have to do some settling for their choices.
“People are recalibrating their expectations and considering maybe my first purchase of a home won’t be a single-family home. Maybe it’ll be a condo and apartment style, and then I can move up into something else later,” said Guérette.
In the City of Warman, the highest-populated Saskatoon bedroom community, city hall is approaching the low-supply issue with a strategy of increasing development and higher density housing.
“We wanted 200 higher-density rentals, actually, in Warmen, and we’re already over that number. We started that in 2020,” said Gary Philipchuk, Warman’s mayor, in an interview with Global News.
“As a city, we continue to encourage growth, we encourage businesses and welcome businesses to our community that really complement the growth,” he said.
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