The COVID-19 quarantine month of May was not pretty for the real estate business in Saskatchewan, according to the Saskatchewan REALTORS Association’s monthly report
Prices, sales and new listings fell as buyers, sellers and realtors hunkered down at home for the lockdown.
“I had expected it would be worse than it was,” commented Jason Yochim, CEO of the association. “We had expected that it might be down by 70 to 75 per cent” as it was with the SARS pandemic.
“April was down 50 per cent; May was down at 80 per cent of last year’s transactions.
“If I can toot our horn, it was because we were proactive in preparing for the pandemic” after the provincial state of emergency was declared.
The association worked on ways to show homes online and on virtual open houses and “I think that gave people comfort and confidence in getting involved.
“There were people out there who needed to buy and sell a house.”
Yochim believes it’s important to get the economy going as the average house sale creates an additional $54,000 spin-off. “That’s a lot of trades jobs.”
“People need to buy and sell houses.”
Median home prices in Moose Jaw dropped 16.7 per cent to $225,000 — a decline of $45,000. These prices are now 39 per cent below the 10-year average.
Only 63 new listings were placed on the market in May, down from 111 last May.
Thirty-two homes sold in the city compared with 49 the previous year, a decrease of 34 per cent. Listings year-to-date of 336 are about one-third less than in 2019.
Homes sold in Moose Jaw stayed on the market an average of 83 days, 10 days longer than last year.
The report says a sales to listing ratio of 50.8 per cent indicates a balanced market.
Median home prices in the region outside Moose Jaw fell almost 15 per cent to $175,500.
Moose Jaw prices took the second largest decline among nine regions at 16.7 per cent.
Largest decline was southeast Saskatchewan with a 21.1 per cent drop to $162,000.
Next largest declines were North Battleford, 14.5 per cent to $195,000; Melfort, 8.8 per cent to $199,500; Yorkton, 8.2 per cent to $220,250; Swift Current, 3.6 per cent to $257,700; and Regina, 2.9 per cent to $282,000.
Saskatoon bucked the trend with a 3.7 per cent price increase to $338,000.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
