(file photo/The Canadian Press)

By Glenn Hicks

housing

P.A. house sale volumes and prices spike

Mar 5, 2021 | 8:00 AM

The housing market in Prince Albert last month followed a provincial trend upwards. It showed a 178 per cent rise in sales volume, and numbers also well above the five and 10-year averages. The jump in unit sales has seen a plus-200 per cent rise in dollar sales volume.

The Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA) says 50 homes changed hands in the city compared to 18 in February 2020. In the wider P.A. and region there were 77 sales last month compared to 27 in the same month in 2020.

Economic analyst with the SRA Chris Gbekorbu said one of the driving forces is people have saved money during this pandemic.

“People do have this potential nest egg now that they can use as a down payment. Disposable income has gone up,” he told paNOW, noting interest rates are also very low.

Gbekorbu said other factors included a pent-up demand to make a big purchase and that house-buying was a ‘relatively easy’ process albeit with COVID guidelines in place. Also, there’s a sense that with limited availability the market has seen a jump in prices.

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“Things started taking off June or July last year and have been going up since, so it could be that fear of missing out.”

According to the latest SRA report homes in Prince Albert are staying on the market for an average 84 days. The average was 102 days for the corresponding month in 2020.

Gbekorbu said homeowners have had more time to fix up their properties the last year because of the COVID restrictions on travel and that has perhaps sparked an added interest among potential buyers. At the same time, he said rising prices could be encouraging would-be sellers.

In Prince Albert the median price of a house sale last month was $228,650, compared to $197,500 in February, 2020.

Sales volumes are up over 200 per cent going from $3.8 million in February 2020 to $11.8 million last month.

So far in 2021 property to the tune of $21.1 million has changed hands, which is an increase of 220 per cent over the first two months of 2020.

On the provincial front SRA said sales volumes were up 74 per cent from last February and median prices were up in 13 of the 119 markets they track.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @princealbertnow