Moose Jaw Real Estate Market Data Shows Possibilty It Is Now A Seller's Market

Strong sales and increasing prices accompanied by less homes put on the market in August may indicate the Moose Jaw housing market has swung from being a buyer’s to a seller’s market.

That’s the word from the Saskatchewan Realtor’s Association (SRA) in their latest market analysis.

In Moose Jaw the number of homes sold in August 2020 was 55 versus 49 in August 2019 or a 12.2 percentage sales increase year over year in the same month (August). Sales were 18 percent higher than the five year average and 5.8 percent above the ten year average.

The number new listings was 79 in August 2020 versus 95 in August 2019. New listings in August 2020 was 17.4 lower than the five year average and 16 percent lower than the ten year average.

Median home prices went from $196,500 in August 2019 to $210,000 in August 2020 or a 6.9 percent increase. The median price in August 2020 was 0.1 percent higher than the five year average and 1.1 percent below the ten year median price.

Housing inventory was 4.3 months which is 36 percent less inventory that August 2019. The August 2020 inventory was 41.6 percent below the five year average.

The report concluded in Moose Jaw given the sales to listing ratio was 69.9 percent the statistics were such they were “suggesting that market conditions favoured sellers.”

Provincially sales have seen a softening in August from June and July 2020 but sales figures still show a 46 percent increase year over year versus August 2019.

Moose Jaw though lagged behind the provincial sales percentage increase with a year over year increase of 12.2 percent.

At the September 8th regular City of Moose Jaw Council meeting Mayor Fraser Tolmie said every lawyer and real estate agent he had spoken to had told him they were busy because of home sales.

Despite the lockdown from mid-March to early June sales provincially have rebounded suggesting that COVID - 19 has had little effect on home buyers and the smaller numbers of cases reported has helped the home market.

“While there have been some COVID outbreaks across the province, the number of cases has been pretty small” SRA CEO Jason Yochim said in a statement, “and this doesn’t seem to have turned people off from buying and selling real estate.”

“The fact that we had two months of slow activity and that “we’ve almost made up all of that lost ground is simply amazing,” Yochim said in the statement.

It also needs to be stated that the sales period of June to August is usually the busiest for sales as people buy homes and take possesion prior to the start of the regular school year in September.