The Saskatchewan Realtors Association says supply levels for housing remain low causing continued price increases.
The SRA says the level of new listings coming on the market was far lower than levels seen last year and lower than the 10 year average. The Association says there are 5,648 units in inventory which are levels nearly 30 per cent lower than what would traditionally be seen in March.
CEO Chris Guerette says March is typically the month they start to see more people listing their homes adding supply to the market.
“While we did see more new listings compared to the winter months, it hasn’t been enough compared to the sales to make any significant change in supply, resulting in further price gains in the market.”
The unadjusted benchmark price in March reached $289,500 which is more than 3 per cent higher than last year’s levels and 13 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Guerette says it could take longer than expected, especially in the province’s biggest city, to come back to more balanced conditions and they have started reaching out to industry partners to discuss how to address supply shortages.
After the first quarter, both North Battleford, Prince Albert and the Melfort region have seen their months of supply trend up, however, despite those gains, conditions still mostly favour the seller .
The most significant year over year gains were noted in Warman at 9 per cent.
The only areas to see prices fully recover and post further growth were Saskatoon, Martensville, Warman, Humboldt and Melfort.
With 491 sales this month, activity is the second highest on record in Saskatoon and over 40 per cent higher than the 10-year average for March.
Low inventory and strong sales resulted in further tightening of the market. The SRA says this is the tightest March Saskatoon has seen since 2008 and persistently tight conditions have continued to affect prices which have risen by about $40,000 since the start of the pandemic.
Regina has seen 351 sales in the month which means levels are still among the strongest March activity recorded in the city. With 982 units in inventory, this was nine per cent lower than levels recorded last year and this recent shift does put inventory levels over 12 per cent below long-term trends.
