Housing market shows early signs of recovery

For the first time in months, the monthly housing market update wasn’t filled with bad news.

Prince Albert’s housing market showed signs of life in April, with year-over-year increases that marked a departure from months of sluggish sales.

According to the latest data provided by the Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors (SRAR), sale activity jumped last month, bringing year-to-date sales in line with last year’s year-to-date numbers, despite a slow start to the year. Sales activity jumped to 57 homes in April, up from 42 last year and 56 the year prior. New listings also rose slightly, and the average days on the market dropped to 86 days, the lowest since 2012.

So far this year, homes are selling faster, on average, than they did in either 2017 or 2018 year-to-date, but still slower than 2016 and years prior. Dollar volume also rose, increasing by 26 per cent. In the city itself, sales were up 41 per cent.

“That’s encouraging for P.A., because the market was quite depressed for a number of months,” said SRAR CEO Jason Yochim.

The Saskatoon region also saw growth.

“People came out of hibernation and said, it’s time,” Yochim said in a press release.

“We’re seeing the beginning of a spring market, which is nice.”

In single-month data, Every Metric, except for average price and sale to list price ratio showed an improvement. The numbers though, were mostly declined compared to April 2017.

Year-to-date, sales activity remains constant, while average price and dollar volume have fallen. Other metrics, though, such as new listings, sales to new listings, months of inventory and average days on market have all shown signs of improvement.

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