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Saskatchewan’s housing market continues to favour buyers, while sellers try to stand out in a sea of inventory.
Tracking the housing market is an above-the-fold story these days. First of all, it affects a lot of us and, secondly, it is a challenging market for all but the buyer. Builders are working hard to find a profitable model; sellers are caught in a wave of inventory; realtors have too few buyers to keep up with supply. So, this story is getting plenty of traction.
And now the quarterly report on Affordability is one of the tools we use to put the state of the market into context.
It is compiled by RBC Royal Bank and measures local income levels against average home prices to create a ratio or Index. In Saskatchewan, home ownership is among the most affordable in the country.
In Saskatoon, where inventory levels are high and prices have been falling for four years, it takes roughly 33 per cent of the average paycheque to buy a house. In Regina, considered the most attractive major city in the country on this measure, it takes about 29 per cent. Even so, sales cannot keep up to demand growth.
