Archive for the ‘News’ Category

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New Fire Station For Saskatoon East Side

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

For those people who currently own real estate or are looking to purchase real estate on Saskatoon’s east side you will be happy to know that the city of Saskatoon have approved a new fire station to be built on the cornerof Herold and Slimmon Roads in Lakewood.  The total cost of the project is estimated to be $5.4 million.  The construction of the new fire hall is planned to start in 2009 with a completion of that year.  The new fire station is intended to provide fire response within four minutes to East College Park, Briarwood, Lakeridge and Rosewood which is a new area the city of Saskatoon is currently planning.  For more information on this story visit the Star Phoenix.

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

Posted in News, Saskatoon, Saskatoon News, Saskatoon Real Estate | No Comments »

Saskatoon New Home Developments Breaking Records

Monday, March 17th, 2008

New HomeNew housing starts hit a 30-year record high in February in Saskatoon according to the Star Phoenix.  In February alone developers have started work on 175 new housing units.  The new developments in Saskatoon are almost split evenly between single-family homes and condo-style homes.  According to the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp) the 89 single-detached home starts are the highest amount they have seen since 1978.  The total number of 175 new home starts are 94 per cent higher than in February 2007.  Since January the total number of combined new home starts is 376 which include both single-family and multi-family developments.  This is 68 per cent higher that last year in the same time frame.  According to CMHC the demand for housing in Saskatoon is at an all time high.  The housing market is a direct affect of the Saskatchewan economy and the growth it is experiencing.  There is a large labor shortage in Saskatoon and with more and more people relocating to Saskatoon to fill that our housing market will continue to grow.  If you have been thinking about getting into the Saskatoon real estate market don’t want any longer, contact me today and I will be more than happy to provide you detailed information on the current Saskatoon and surrounding area real estate market.

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

Posted in Buyers, Current Market, News, Saskatoon Real Estate | No Comments »

Saskatoon Condo Conversion Update

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

With the increase demand for real estate many owners of apartment buildings and rental property are currently looking to cash in and convert their properties into condos.  The topic of Saskatoon condo conversions has been a controversial topic in Saskatoon over the past year.  In August 2007 this issue was presented to the City of Saskatoon who rejected the ban on condo conversions.  According to the people who brought forward the proposal to ban condo conversions in Saskatoon, the people most affected are students, elderly and low income families.  The city indicated they would keep a close eye on this issue and deal with it as it moved forward.  A city councilor named Charlie Clark indicated when speaking to a crowd on February 28, 2008 that the owners of eight per cent of rental properties in Saskatoon are looking to convert them into condos.  Many people that normally wouldn’t have thought about purchasing a property are now looking into it.  In many cases purchasing a condo in Saskatoon can in fact be cheaper than your monthly rent.  There are a lot of additional benefits of purchasing real estate in Saskatoon than just saving money on your rent.  If you are interested in looking to get into the Saskatoon real estate market feel free to contact me for additional information.

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

Posted in Buyers, Current Market, News, Saskatoon, Saskatoon Events, Saskatoon Real Estate | 1 Comment »

Students React To Lack Of Saskatoon Cheap Housing

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Unless you have been living under a rock you are well aware of the booming Saskatoon real estate market.  On Thursday, March 28 a group of students from the University of Saskatchewan took a creative approach to bring awareness to the lack of cheap housing available for students in the city.  The students built an igloo on the University of Saskatchewan campus indicating that if the Saskatoon real estate market continues on its current path, that this will be what students will have to resort to.  One student volunteered to spend the night in the igloo but referred to the experience as “Yeah, last night was absolute crap.”  This is the second time a group of students have done something similar.  In the fall a group of students spent the weekend in tents trying to bring awareness to the issue.  The community of Saskatoon responded with offering over 300 rooms to students.  With the current real estate market continuing to increase this will continue to be an issue for students. 

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

Posted in News, Personal, Saskatoon, Saskatoon Events, Saskatoon Real Estate | No Comments »

Saskatoon Real Estate Update – January 2008

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Our current Saskatoon Real Estate market has picked up once again. After a small lull in the fall, the Saskatoon market has started out strong so far in 2008.

The 2007 overall average sales price in Saskatoon was $232,362 with January starting at $190,037 and ending in December with $255,271.

It seems that any homes that were listed in the fall and still on the market at the beginning of the year are now getting snapped up. Most people don’t want to wait for the spring boom this year which is actually propelling our market early. The Saskatoon market is once again in a sellers market with multiple offers already occurring.

So if you are thinking of buying a home in Saskatoon, don’t wait until Spring! Be prepared to be involved in a bidding competition though, even if a house is listed first come first serve as they may still get multiple offers. If you see a house in Saskatoon that looks like it may be ‘the one’ do not wait as you may miss out.

Contact me today if you are looking to either buy or sell a home in Saskatoon and the surrounding area!

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

Posted in Buyers, Current Market, News, Saskatchewan Real Estate, Saskatoon Real Estate, Sellers | No Comments »

Saskatchewan Population Growth!

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

It is no surprise that our Saskatoon Real Estate market has seen a 50% jump from 2006 when you look at the statistics of population in our province.

Average house prices have risen from $165,000 to over $250,000 which is a 51% increase.

The Saskatoon real estate market was directly impacted by the influx of over 15,000 people in the past year. This finally puts our province above the 1 million mark. You can check out more stats about Saskatchewan at http://www.stats.gov.sk.ca/.

Saskatchewan’s real estate market took a big jump across the province this year and almost every city and town felt the market go up. People who wanted to buy a nice house in Saskatoon for a good price decided to go to Warman, Martensville and other surrounding towns as they simply could get more bang for their buck in these communities. Due to the demand and the small town feeling next to a big city (big by OUR standards of course!) the prices also started jumping in the surrounding communities.

Saskatoon real estate has finally caught up to some of our neighbouring provinces and the demand for buying houses in Saskatoon has not stopped. One of the reasons there are not a lot of homes for sale in Saskatoon right now is because of the lull over the holidays. The buyer’s market did not slow down as there were plenty of people buying homes in Saskatoon over the holiday season, but the inventory of homes for sale in Saskatoon didn’t keep up.

We do not have enough good labourers in this province to keep up with the demand of new homes to be built.

Houses for sale in Saskatoon seem to be dwindling after the Christmas market as people were here buying but not many people were putting their homes in Saskatoon for sale.

Whether you are looking at buying or selling a house in Saskatoon or the surrounding area feel free to contact me at anytime for further information.

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

Posted in Current Market, News, Saskatchewan Real Estate, Saskatoon, Saskatoon Real Estate | No Comments »

Saskatoon Vacancy Rates at an All Time Recorded Low

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

I think we all have heard about the condo conversions taking hold of our city, but the annual survey by the CMHC (Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp) has proven that our Saskatoon vacancy rate has fallen to an all time low with a 1.2% apartment vacancy rate. But, despite all that you hear about the rental increases, the average monthly rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Saskatoon is just under $700; up only $85 per month since last year. The north end of Saskatoon as well as Nutana are both almost at 0% vacancy.

One of the reasons behind this is the booming housing market in Saskatoon we have been experiencing. Unfortunately it is harder for first time home buyers to get started in the Saskatoon Real Estate market now that prices have gone up, but there are still many options to get people started in the market. Just talk to a Saskatoon Realtor ® about how you can get started (and feel free to contact me!). Real estate in Saskatoon is still attainable for many people if you talk to the right professionals about how.

One of the ways of combating this low vacancy rate and increased housing costs in Saskatoon has been to build suites in homes to help pay the mortgage. This benefits both the home owners as well as the thousands affected by the rental shortage.

We hope that the new government will address the issue as if they do not, we will see a huge problem in Saskatchewan very quickly.

Any opinions out there? Please give me your points of view on this topic and how it can be addressed. As a real estate agent in Saskatoon I see every side of the topic and it is nice to get opinions from real people out there. Thanks!

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

Posted in Buyers, Current Market, News, Saskatoon, Saskatoon Real Estate, Sellers | 1 Comment »

Media – Fact or Fiction?

Friday, October 12th, 2007

You know that you shouldn’t always believe the media, right? That is a mere understatement! Recently in the news the media stated something to the effect that average house prices have decreased in the past month. This caused some people to get upset, worrying that they overpaid for their properties. This is probably not the case (although in the seller’s market we just experienced there are a lot of people who ‘bid’ more than the probably should have just to get a house).

What the media does not tell you is how people come about getting the ‘average house price in Saskatoon’. They do an average, taking all of the properties that sell in a period of time and tally up the gross property value and divide it by the quantity of homes sold. What is neglected to be taken into consideration is the TYPE of residential property sold. Consider this, in one month if 100 houses sell and 75 of those are big new houses in S1 and 25 of those are apartment style condos (still considered residential), the average is going to appear to be extremely high…but in the next month those numbers are reversed and there are more condos selling (which was definitely the case due to the insane shortage of student housing) and only 25 large houses, the average is going to appear to have decreased. In reality, the market has not gone up or down, but the media just caught the tailwind and found out an average price overall.

Moral of the story, don’t always believe what you hear in the news, but we all already knew that, right?

As far as the future of real estate in Saskatoon…well, if I could tell you that for certain and I had a crystal ball, I would have invested all my money a year ago and I would be retired! We all wish we had the answer to that, but keep in mind, Saskatoon has a LOT going for it as a City and a lot more going on around Saskatoon, so we don’t see a decline, but a steady incline however probably nothing like we saw in the spring. Real estate is generally a safe investment in a thriving city like ours.

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

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