16. March 2009 by Kari Calder.

Sometime in June, the city of Saskatoon will be getting the option to fly directly from Saskatoon to Chicago.  This is the latest addition of flights being added by United Airlines.  Last year Saskatoon saw the addition of a daily direct flight to Denver which has been a huge success.

Flights will originate from John G Diefenbaker International Airport and will go direct to Chicago O’Hare International Airport which is one of the largest airports in the United States.  The addition of this flight gives travellers from Saskatoon far more options than existed before.  As someone who loves to travel I am very excited about this additional flight.  I am sure in time as Saskatoon continues to grow we will see the addition of other flights into the United States.  With large corporations with offices in the United States like Cameco and Potash Corp there will be growing needs to have more direct access to the US.

Flights will leave Saskatoon at 12:45pm and arrive in Chicago at 4:35pm local time.  The return flight will leave Chicago at 9:50am and arrive in Saskatoon at 12:02pm.  Just think, if you are ever craving a Chicago deep dish pizza, it’s just a direct flight away!

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

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16. March 2009 by Kari Calder.

Saskatchean you could say hit it big time when on March 4, CNN did a story about Saskatchewan being a “hot spot” for jobs in Canada.  As you can imagine with the current international economic crisis this was picked up by just about everyone.  Saskatchewan runs a government sponsored job website called saskjobs.ca.  The government reported that since 2 days of the CNN story going out the website had 52,000 hits including a single day record of 27,800.  The largest increase we saw on the website was from American visitors.  On one day alone there was 3,300 visitors which is 10 times the average.  87% of those total hits were new visitors.

The saskjobs.ca website currently hosts 5,800 jobs openings.  “Saskatchewan continues to be a light in a dim global economic situation”, said Rob Norries, advanced education, employment and labour minister.

The artice was written by Mallory Simon and was the most viewed story on the day of its release and second most e-mailed story.  If you are from Saskatchewan I am sure you are like me and were very proud to see our great province getting some recognition.  There are a lot of people out there that assume everywhere is suffering with the current economic situation, but Saskatchewan is staying strong.  We will not be totally immune to it but we are far better than most.

I can say as a Saskatoon real estate agent that I have been receiving more inquiries and have been working with more people from outside of Saskatchewan than ever before.  We are seeing a lot of people moving back or moving here for the first time.  People will always go where the jobs are and currently they are here in Saskatchewan!

For more information on this story visit here.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

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16. March 2009 by Kari Calder.

Although no province will be entirely immune to the economic downturn, there are 4 provinces that are showing great resiliency and one of those is Saskatchewan. Given that Canada and the US share the world’s largest trading partnership ($1.5 billion a day) it is impossible to be spared from the massive US economic slowdown, however 2 eastern provinces and 2 western provinces will be growing this year…although not without some difficulty.

As Saskatchewan and Manitoba have strong agricultural economies, this is expected to help us move forward this year. Manitoba is set to grow 1% in 2009 while Saskatchewan is supposed to lead the country with a 1.6% growth. On the East Coast it is New Brunswick with a small 0.2% economic growth and PEI with a 0.6% growth. Both provinces have infrastructure and major capital projects on the go.

Newfoundland and Labrador may have two of the worst economies due to the impact of declining offshore oil output and may shrink by an estimated 2.6%. Ontario will struggle due to the manufacturing aspect with the auto industry and manufacturing is also hurting Quebec’s growth.

Alberta’s economy, which is heavily reliant on the energy industry, is forecasted to weaken as oil prices continue to go down and expensive oil sands projects are put on hold.

Overall, the Canadian economy will shrink 0.9% this year which is revised from the autumn forecast of a GDP growth of 2.2%

It is widely believed that the Canadian economy will rebound in 2010, expanding 3.6%. Good thing that the Saskatchewan economy is already strong!

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

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16. March 2009 by Kari Calder.

If you are looking for a job, Saskatchewan is the place to look! While the rest of Canada has seen declining jobs in inclining unemployment numbers, Saskatchewan has been facing a labour shortage. On February 20th, 2009 Rob Norns, Saskatchewan’s labour minister, stated “The message is clear: Saskatchewan is a land of opportunity”. The numbers tell much of the story and that most of North America has seen its unemployment numbers go up while Saskatchewan is bucking the trend. According to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate dropped slightly from 4.2% in December, 2008 to 4.1% in January, 2009. While Ontario was losing 71,000 jobs and Quebec was losing 25,000 jobs, Saskatchewan added 1600 jobs during the same period.

Unemployment rates are high across the country with even British Columbia hitting 6% (Quebec is at 7.7%, Ontario 8%) but Saskatchewan has significantly lower unemployment rates.

We have lost workers to stronger economies in the past, but now Saskatchewan is focusing on getting our expats to come back. Our real estate in Saskatoon has hit the high and has now dropped to more acceptable and easier to digest prices.

But, don’t just pick up and move here to any old town. It is important to consider, when looking to move to some of the stronger economic provinces like Saskatchewan and Manitoba, if a community has enough things going for them. You don’t want to go to a town that only has one industry; a diversified local economy is important. One also needs to consider cost and quality of living. I can say that real estate in Saskatchewan, and more specifically, real estate in Saskatoon, is not cheap by any means, but we have seen the huge increase in prices followed by a decrease and now we are at a leveling out place that is much more affordable for people to buy a house in Saskatoon. Houses in Saskatoon are hopefully going to see another increase in price, but this may not happen until about 2010 as we have a lot of excess inventory to clean up.

But also consider, if you have been used to real estate prices in Victoria or Vancouver, you will be pleasantly surprised by the real estate prices in Saskatoon.

I expect we will see many more out of province people moving to Saskatchewan in the next year. Even though the international economic climate is so volatile we are monitoring the situation despite, at the moment, being one of the best provinces to weather the economic storm.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

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16. March 2009 by Kari Calder.

Canada’s 10 healthiest housing markets source CREA.

It is no secret that the Canadian real estate market, like all other markets in the world, has cooled off. Fortunately these 10 Canadian real estate markets are faring better than the rest. I am very happy to say that the Saskatoon real estate market is not only in the top 10 of Canada’s healthiest real estate markets, but Saskatoon real estate is in the top 5. Ask anyone who lives in Saskatoon (well, ask anyone who isn’t the doom and gloom type) and they will tell you that we are relatively untouched by the global economic crisis and that houses for sale in Saskatoon are selling! Saskatoon real estate did take a bit of a downturn, like everywhere else, but one of the reasons for this was that investors were all pulling out at the same time which meant a big increase in houses for sale in Saskatoon.

The housing market in Saskatoon appears to be stabilizing but it will take some time to clear up all of the excess inventory. There are still many good bargains to be had with the amount of Saskatoon houses for sale but many of the desperate sellers are now out of the market and people are not buying a new house before they sell their old house.

Here is the list of the 10 healthiest real estate markets in Canada.

#1 Newfoundland and Labrador
January 2009 average price: $192, 408
Change from January 2008: up 20.1% 

#2 Halifax and Dartmouth
January 2009 average price: $242, 861
Change from January 2008: up 11.1% 

#3 Quebec City
January 2009 average price: $201, 024
Change from January 2008: up 10.8% 

#4 Regina
January 2009 average price: $213, 622
Change from January 2008: up 7.6%

#5 Saskatoon
January 2009 average price: $278, 545
Change from January 2008: up 7.4% 

#6 Saguenay
January 2009 average price: $144, 237
Change from January 2008: up 6.9% 

#7 Durham Region
January 2009 average price: $257, 095
Change from January 2008: up 5.5% 

#8 Winnipeg
January 2009 average price: $183, 873
Change from January 2008: up 5.1% 

#9 Montreal
January 2009 average price: $242, 450
Change from January 2008: up 2.2%

 #10 Ottawa
January 2009 average price: $290, 930
Change from January 2008: up 1.8% 

Canada’s 10 most struggling housing markets

Unfortunately many of our Canadian cities have seen a big drop in real estate values, luckily Saskatoon real estate is staying strong. Here is a list of the top 10 struggling Canadian housing markets.

#1 Trois-Rivieres
January 2009 average price: $122, 486
Change from January 2008: down 14.9% 

#2 Victoria
January 2009 average price: $431, 312
Change from January 2008: down 14.7% 

#3 Saint John
January 2009 average price: $142, 218
Change from January 2008: down 13.9% 

#4 Calgary
January 2009 average price: $362, 143
Change from January 2008: down 11.4% 

#5 Vancouver
January 2009 average price: $536, 162
Change from January 2008: down 8.8% 

#6 Toronto
January 2009 average price: $343, 632
Change from January 2008: down 8.2% 

#7 St. Catharines and district
January 2009 average price: $208, 026
Change from January 2008: down 6.3% 

#8 Sudbury
January 2009 average price: $197, 327
Change from January 2008: down 6.0% 

#9 Hamilton-Burlington and district
January 2009 average price: $264, 549
Change from January 2008: down 4.9% 

#10 Edmonton
January 2009 average price: $317, 049
Change from January 2008: down 4.5%

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

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