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Insights to the Saskatoon real estate market
Recently I was interviewed by point2homes.com about Saskatoon’s ever changing real estate market and the effect that this current market has on buyers. Our Saskatoon market has been showing strength and stability in a sea of vulnerability found in other Canadian markets.
If I could describe our market in just one word, I’d say ‘balanced’. There are more listings than ever however large home building companies are appreciating our value as REALTORS® which adds to the total number of listings we see. Pricing and exposure are key elements in this market.
Areas that are popular with first time home buyers continue to be new areas such as Evergreen or Kensington. Generally speaking, I’m finding those buyers that have bought and sold previously, are more interested in established neighbourhoods with good schools, lots of trees, and often larger lots.
The vacancy rate in Saskatoon is high right now however I would always recommend buying vs. renting. You’re building up equity for yourself and not someone else!
My biggest advice for first time buyers is to find a trusted Saskatoon REALTOR® who will advocate for you and guide you along the way. Don’t overextend yourself financially and be realistic about what your budget will allow.
Saskatoon is an awesome place to live, and one I’m glad to call home. There are so many great restaurants, events, and places to explore that if Saskatoon is new for you-I’m certain you will love living here too.
Read my full article here: http://www.point2homes.com/news/canada-real-estate/saskatoon-market-insights-with-kari-calder.html
Kari Calder
Saskatoon real estate agent
Century 21 Fusion
What will Justin Trudeau’s win mean for the real estate market?
October 19th’s majority win lead by Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party will push an overhaul of Canada’s tax system, infrastructure spending, and the economy in general. But what changes can homeowners expect to come from this new government in office and how does this affect real estate?
Sherry Cooper, chief economist for Dominion Lending Centres, said the unexpected majority win will lead to a rebalancing of economic policy in Canada.
While much is yet to be determined, the Liberals have promised to increase government spending for transit, social, and green infrastructure which will lead the country to budget deficits for the next three years.
The majority win takes the pressure off the Bank of Canada in terms of lowering the overnight rate in its announcement expected October 21. In recent years, the Bank of Canada has been doing all the work when it comes to stimulating Canada’s economy. With the Liberal’s promise to increase spending, this should take some pressure off the Bank of Canada to further lower the already low interest rates.
The infrastructure spending plan could also have an impact on mortgage rates if the government issues more bonds to pay for the expenditure. This will lead investors looking elsewhere and mortgage rates to become stable to moderately higher over the next year.
This would then lead to moderate cooling of overheated markets like Vancouver and Toronto while other stable markets are to remain untouched.
It will be interesting to see just exactly how our local Saskatoon real estate market will be affected by the new federal government change, only time will tell.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon real estate agent
Century 21 Fusion
Saskatoon real estate market update for September 2015
The September 2015 Saskatoon real estate market sales has decreased from 2014 where 393 houses for sale in Saskatoon sold. This year we saw a market decrease with 329 houses in Saskatoon selling for the month of September.
The average home price in Saskatoon did not see significant changes from last year with the average house price at $353,317 for 2015. This is up 0.1% from last year’s $352,883 in September.
Currently, the average time to sell a house in Saskatoon has decreased from September’s 50 days to 50 days.
By the end of September, homebuyers in Saskatoon had 2,038 homes to choose from with 736 of those being condos for sale in Saskatoon.
Listing inventory in Saskatoon has increased with 843 new house listings in Saskatoon in 2015 while in 2014 we saw 765 new units placed on the market, signifying an increase of 10.2%.
If you are looking for a qualified and experienced Saskatoon real estate agent, contact me for more information or to set up a meeting to discuss the current market and all your real estate needs.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
Fraud prevention for REALTORS®
Here are some common tips or red flags that that the e-crimes coordinator of the Regina City Police has suggested that agents look out for. The following are points for real estate agents to avoid becoming potential victims of fraud:
- Questions why someone would be contacting the real estate agent, offering to purchase property sight unseen.
- Look for warning signs in the content of the email; broken English, poor spelling, poor sentence structure, use of words such as “god bless you”, and many references to the agent being a “friend”. The suspect will often use names that are “biblical” in nature.
- They make references to sending cash as a down payment or for full payment of the property, stating they are unable to do a bank transfer. They then state the money will be sent via a courier service. The courier service is not an actual company, but may have a name similar to the more well known companies such as Fed-ex or UPS. There may be references to there being a website for the courier company, with there being an actual website, but once in the website, there will be links that do not work, or contact information that is not valid. There will be contact phone numbers which will not match to addresses given for the courier’s offices.
- The suspect will state they are part of a major corporation, and will make references to their lawyer who they will state is part of an established law office. Email addresses will be through hotmail, yahoo, live, gmail etc. The majority of larger businesses will have their own server and the email address will be part of that.
- Further in the proceedings it will likely be revealed that the suspect is located outside of the country, often the United Kingdom.
- The suspect will ask the agent to forward them copies of their identification (drivers license, passport, SIN, etc.) in order to forward the money to them for the property. By providing this information the agent is increasing the likelihood that they could be victims of identification theft.
- The suspect may request to meet the agent in a location outside of your city to facilitate the deal such as Toronto. This increases the personal risk of the agent.
- The suspect may say they are in one location, they will send a cheque or money order, which will be a forgery from a completely different location with an unrelated name on the cheque. The suspect will say they have sent too much money with instructions to forward part of the payment to an unrelated third location.
- If something does not seem likely and seems too good to be true, it likely is. Always let common sense prevail.
- Use the internet as a tool to protect yourself. Do internet searches of person and company names you are given and do further internet searches of any websites you are given. The agent that is in contact with the suspect is likely not the first person that has been approached by them, and there may be postings to the internet from people who have already fallen victim to similar frauds involving the same suspect names.
Several real estate agents have their own websites, and have profiles on Social Networking websites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc). Be aware of how much personal information are on the agents own website and their profile on the Social Networking websites. This information can be seen by anyone in the world, and the amount of information that is available can provide the means for the criminal to develop a manner in which to communicate with them, allowing them to groom them, establish a relationship, developing a trust and friendship to assist with the fraudulent transaction.
It is important to remember that everyone on the internet is a complete stranger until it can be proven otherwise. The internet allows a person to maintain a certain level of anonymity – they can give themselves any age, sex, profession, and be located wherever they want.
Although I don’t believe that scams are an everyday occurrence in Saskatoon, they do happen and I have had first hand experience with someone trying to impersonate me on kijiji. It does happen and as REALTORS®, we can never be too certain who’s at the other end of the call or email.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon real estate agent
Century 21 Fusion
Household debt hits record high
The debt to income ratio is an important one. It is a good indicator on how strong the economy is and gives lenders a look at how financial secure you are as an individual. On average, this ratio for Canadians rose to an all time high in the second quarter.
In the wake of low oil prices, the Bank of Canada announced at the start of the year that the largest domestic risk are the loss of jobs forcing income to decline enough to limit Canadian’s ability to pay their debt. This will ultimately lead to a housing correction.
Since then, the Bank has cut interest rates for the second time this year to help alleviate the load that some Canadians are taking on.
The leverage ratio rose to 164.6% from 163.0% in the first quarter, this is not seasonally adjusted.
The concern comes when the Bank of Canada decides to raise the interest rates although economists speculate that this will be a long way away.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, households borrowed $26.3 billion in the second quarter which is an increase from $3.7 billion from the previous quarter. Mortgages accounted for $17.7 billion, the largest portion.
Canadians need to be careful and not overextend themselves financially as a whole. That is where we will see problems occur and start to see housing prices decrease.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon real estate agent
Century 21 Fusion
Saskatoon real estate market update for August 2015
The August 2015 Saskatoon real estate market sales has decreased from 2014 where 393 houses for sale in Saskatoon sold. This year we saw a market decrease with 329 houses in Saskatoon selling for the month of August.
The average home price in Saskatoon did not see significant changes from last year with the average house price at $353,317 for 2015. This is up 0.1% from last year’s $352,883 in August.
Currently, the average time to sell a house in Saskatoon has decreased from July’s 52 days to 50 days.
By the end of August, homebuyers in Saskatoon had 2,062 homes to choose from with 716 of those being condos for sale in Saskatoon.
Listing inventory in Saskatoon has increased with 843 new house listings in Saskatoon in 2015 while in 2014 we saw 765 new units placed on the market, signifying an increase of 10.2%.
If you are looking for a qualified and experienced Saskatoon real estate agent, contact me for more information or to set up a meeting to discuss the current market and all your real estate needs.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
Prime land opportunity
Prime land development is about to come a real possibility within the Saskatoon City limits. The University of Saskatchewan is preparing to lease more than half of its land holdings over the next four decades. This means nearly 1,000 acres of undeveloped land up for grabs within 5 kms of downtown Saskatoon.
The U of S has struggled to make ends meet in the last few years and this will help boost the revenue of the university. Developing the lands is projected to be worth close to $900 million and equates to 60,000 apartments with 180,000 residents at 3 per unit at the high-density end of the spectrum.
The area proposed would be 4 times the size of downtown Saskatoon.
The two most intriguing parcels of land feature prime riverfront land between the Railway Bridge and Circle Drive N and another east of the off leash dog park.
While this change won’t happen overnight, change has slowly started to occur. The beef research unit will be moving to 11 quarter sections of land south of Clavet.
Consultation is still needed to decide density types and how much of each, community and neighbourhood consultation with regards to traffic and noise, and the Meewasin Valley Authority which has precedent over the lands because of their proximity to the river.
This is an exciting prospect for our city and will surely change the landscape of the city we know. It’s a great opportunity, if done right, for more people to experience infill housing rather than seeing the city constantly growing dramatically outside it’s boundaries.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon real estate agent
Century 21 Fusion
Saskatoon real estate market update for July 2015
The July 2015 Saskatoon real estate market sales has increased from 2014 where 419 houses for sale in Saskatoon sold. This year we saw a market decrease with 444 houses in Saskatoon selling for the month of July.
The average home price in Saskatoon did not see significant changes from last year with the average house price at $361,128 for 2015. This is down 1.0% from last year’s $364,484 in July.
Currently, the average time to sell a house in Saskatoon has increased from June’s 42 days to 52 days.
By the end of July, homebuyers in Saskatoon had 2,047 homes to choose from with 726 of those being condos for sale in Saskatoon.
Listing inventory in Saskatoon has increased with 916 new house listings in Saskatoon in 2015 while in 2014 we saw 932 new units placed on the market, signifying a decrease of 2.0%.
If you are looking for a qualified and experienced Saskatoon real estate agent, contact me for more information or to set up a meeting to discuss the current market and all your real estate needs.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
kari@saskatoonrealestate.net
Average rental rates across Canada
Having a home with a secondary suite has become common place with many people turning to alternative methods to qualify for housing as house prices increase. Recently CMHC has announced that they will be changing the rules to allow more homeowners to rent out their properties.
Currently, 50% of the rental income from legal suites are able to be qualified towards the homeowner’s total income. On Sept 28th, the rules will change and allow for 100% of rental income to be considered. This will help those looking to buy additional rental properties that may not be able to otherwise qualify as well as those starting out that may need that boost of additional income to qualify for more of a home.
But what are the current rental rates? Recently rentseeker.ca showcases the average rental costs for studios, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 3 bedroom suites across Canada.
According to the website, on average, studios in Saskatoon rent for $700, 1 bedrooms for $910, 2 bedrooms for $1112, and 3 bedrooms for $1184. Compare that to Regina at $699, $915, $1095, and $1269 respectively.
The highest monthly rents for a studio are found in areas around the GTA, including Ajax ($1,253), Richmond Hill ($1,136), Oakville ($1,105), Markham ($1,057) and Vaughn ($1,040). On the west coast we see Vancouver ay $930 with Burnaby at $887 and $869 in Surrey.
The lowest rents for studios can be found in Quebec City at $544, Windsor at $538, Abbotsford at $584, and Winnipeg at also at $584.
If you are thinking about purchasing a property with income potential, contact me and I can help guide you to make an informed and educated decision on what will allow you to net the most income.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon real estate agent
Century 21 Fusion
Saskatoon real estate market update for June 2015
The June 2015 Saskatoon real estate market sales has decreased from 2014 where 527 houses for sale in Saskatoon sold. This year we saw a market decrease with 463 houses in Saskatoon selling for the month of June.
The average home price in Saskatoon did see significant changes from last year with the average house price at $360,550 for 2015. This is down 0.3% from last year’s $361,719 in June.
Currently, the average time to sell a house in Saskatoon has decreased from May’s 45 days to 42 days.
By the end of June, homebuyers in Saskatoon had 2,005 homes to choose from with 739 of those being condos for sale in Saskatoon.
Listing inventory in Saskatoon has increased with 1,027 new house listings in Saskatoon in 2015 while in 2014 we saw 907 new units placed on the market, signifying an increase of 13.2%.
If you are looking for a qualified and experienced Saskatoon real estate agent, contact me for more information or to set up a meeting to discuss the current market and all your real estate needs.
Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
