The Market is Hot Hot Hot

It’s a sellers’ market but not a large percentage of home owners are opting to hold onto their properties rather than capitalize on the hottest residential real estate market in years.

The provincial realtors association has just released the year-end results for 2021 showing the total number of transactions last year in Saskatchewan – more than 17,000 – surpassed the previous record by 17%. The former record was established in the midst of the boom in 2007.

Demand significantly outweighed supply last year as listings grew but at a slower pace than successful offers were being tabled. By year’s end, the inventory that was available to a potential buyer was 16% smaller than a year earlier even in the face of more units being offered for sale throughout the province.

All of this gave home prices a lift with some communities in the province setting new valuation records and, as we enter the New Year, the balance is still tilted in favor of sellers so prices are unlikely to soften in the immediate future as we wait to see how buyers deal with the potential of rising interest rates.