SASKATOON -- After years of declining house prices, 2020 may see the housing market start to stabilize.
"The market dynamics are really based on supply and demand," said Norm Fisher of Royal LaPage Vidorra.
"When you see demand improving and supply decreasing, it definitely means were headed back towards balance."
Jason Yochim, CEO of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, shares a similar view, but is less optimistic than Fisher about the possibility of change.
"We saw a bit of an erosion of our average sale price, we also saw an erosion of the number of active listings on market throughout the year, in fact in December we had just over 1,300 active listings which was the lowest in five years," Jochim said.
"With the low inventories now, I’m hoping in 2020 we’ll see some bump up in price a little bit."
Until the market begins to stabilize, problems can arise for those who bought a home in the past few years who are now looking to sell, Yochim said.
"My biggest concern with the decline in average sale price, if someone has purchased a property in the few years with minimum down payment, if they were to sell today they would probably be underwater."
Although Yochim thinks that 2020 could bring some new life into the Saskatoon market, he thinks 2019 is a good benchmark to predict how the new year may pan out.
"I think overall it will be much like last year. The interesting thing is the low inventory levels," Jochim said.
"Unless there’s something significant in the economy, I don’t see a huge upswing or recovery in the housing market and sale of houses."
