Despite an ongoing slump in the city and region’s real estate market, the latest data from the Saskatchewan Realtors Association shows an improvement for December.
Both the region and the city saw strong sales in December. The region saw 20 sales last month, up from 13 the year prior. The city itself also improved, with sales rising from 10 homes to 15.
Dollar volume also rose along with the number of houses sold. The region’s dollar volume rose by 56.4 per cent, while the dollar volume in the city increased by 9.7 per cent.
Regionally, the number of listings remained similar at 42, only one fewer from 2018. In the city, though, listings increased from 21 last December to 29 in 2019.
For the year, the region saw a slight bounce back in the housing market.
Sales went up 4.8 per cent to 520 from 496, with total sales volume growing 8.6 per cent from $39 million to $42.4million.
Within city limits, though, sales dipped slightly, with a 1.8 per cent decrease from 330 homes sold to 324. Sales volume also fell, going down 6.5 per cent from $76.4 million in 2018 to $71.4 million in 2019.
The average home price fell significantly in Prince Albert in December, dropping by 26.9 per cent to $161,900. The region saw a slight increase, growing by 1.7 per cent to $194,275.
The overall average home price for 2019 was $220,844 in the city and $216,492 in the surrounding region.
It’s not just the housing market that appears to be dipping. According to the October 2019 residential and non-residential construction investment, non-residential construction was down by three per cent in Saskatchewan.
October is the most recent month of available data from Statistics Canada.
$127.1 million was spent on non-residential construction in the province in October. Nation-wide, non-residential construction grew by 0.5 per cent.
On an annual basis, industrial and commercial construction was up across Canada, while institutional construction was down.
On the residential side, Saskatchewan saw $160.8 million in residential construction investment in October 2019, a 0.9 per cent increase over the previous month. Nation-wide, the investment fell by one per cent.
On an annual basis, single home investment is down, semi-detached home investment remains stable while investment in row homes and condos and apartments is increasing.
