The residential real estate market in Saskatchewan is once again playing its own tune.
It is not unusual for us to be headed in one direction while much of Canada is going another. It relates to the make-up of our economy.
Saskatchewan relies on commodities while places like Toronto are built on the service sector and generally those two segments act like a teeter-totter. When one is up, the other is down.
And the February numbers from the realtors’ associations across Canada underscore those differences.
Here in Saskatchewan, for example, the supply of houses available for sale was shrinking. The provincial realtors said it was the lowest in a decade.
In big cities, though, the story is changing – more sellers are entering the market and putting their properties up for sale. It was especially noticeable in Calgary and Edmonton, but it was also evident in Toronto and Vancouver.
But even with more supply, prices continued to go up in February, something observers will watch closely as interest rates began to move up in recent days and more increases lie ahead.
