Battlefords’ housing market posts strong May

While a majority of the sales are in mid-range properties priced between $250,000 and $350,000, some sales have started to appear in the $350,000 to $450,000 mark.

“That is a new area that is starting to open up, which is nice to see,” he said.

Buyers taking a look at home prices and seeing how they have remained stagnant or even dropped off, he believes, has encouraged sales.

“The confidence has come back a little bit in the sense that house prices really aren’t taking off,” he said, noting homes priced competitively are moving within weeks.

Higher end sellers, he said, are being forced to roll back prices between $20,000 and $40,000 to realize where the market is.

“The market is the market and the market is going to tell you what [buyers] are going to pay for it,” Lorenz added.

The rash of sales, coupled with homes selling for over $350,000 and $400,000, has bolstered the dollar volume 81 per cent to $13 million, a 52 per cent increase from last May, according to data from the Saskatoon Region Association of Realtors.

Some of the higher priced properties, Lorenz said, have had one birthday on the market and are going on two, but recent activity show “there is some ability financially for some of those sales to start going through.”

Lorenz said it is encouraging to see interest in these properties as there was a fear they were going to become stagnant.

However, he said homes in the $600,000 to $800,000 range have become very difficult to move.

“We have better sales, but we can’t all of a sudden say things have broken loose here. We still have a ways to go,” he added.

Lake properties, he said, remain slow and have not taken off like the agency is used to seeing this time of year.

“Hopefully that goes a little bit better as well and we continue to see an upward trend in the housing market in the Battlefords and region,” he said.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr

by Tyler Marr

Battlefords’ housing market posts strong May

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