UNITY — Is Unity's real estate market hot or in a holding pattern? Readers have asked about the seemingly increasing number of red sold signs they’ve seen in Unity and wondered if it means people are changing residences or do we have several new residents coming to town.
Local realtors say there weren’t as many red toppers as this time last year. Hollie Robertson of Oak and Stone Realty says the first half of 2023 to the end of June in Unity, they had 17 sales while in 2022, they had 31 in this time frame. Their Wilkie location had six home sales to the end of June.
“I represented 20 sellers and 20 buyers, not including people represented by another office, and it’s funny, it’s exactly a 50/50 split between people staying and people going. Ten sellers were staying local while 10 others were moving out of Unity.”
Robertson also adds that 10 home buyers were staying local while 10 buyers were coming in from out of town.
“Most people from out of town are purchasing as investment property or retirement plans, or moving in for work,” says Robertson.
“Right now, our office is sitting with six pending Unity sales and one pending for Wilkie. Wilkie remains fairly close to last year's sales with nine sales January to June this year and 11 on record from last year. So, they're only seeing a 20 per cent drop from last year where Unity is down 45 per cent from January to June. Sales are picking up .... We're hopeful that people realize the interest rates aren't going to decrease and now is a better time to buy than later,” says Robertson.
Town of Unity helps direct newcomers with town information
“The Town of Unity has processed approximately 20 change-of-property ownerships and one new build,” says Office Manager Stacey Godin.
The Town of Unity said often their interactions with people do not lead to where they are from, or their reasons for choosing Unity.
“We routinely field various questions from new residents (as well as current residents) on services, clubs, schedules, halls, businesses and other community aspects. We direct them to our new digital recreation guide which helps with a lot of those answers," adds Godin.
Realty Executives says real estate always changing
Kayla Meredith, a realtor with Realty Executives in Unity says, “Residential sales reported across the province are down a decline of six per cent but sales as a whole for our area of Unity are down almost 60 per cent from our previous year.
“In smaller areas like Luseland, Kerrobert and Wilkie sales percentages are down even more. It’s been a slow year for everyone in real estate but we’re finally starting to see things moving on our market and the sold signs go up like we did in the years prior with spring markets.”
Meredith notes that real estate is always changing and unlike city markets where inventory levels remain a significant challenge, their market is opposite as there is a surplus of inventory, making mention that Unity often doesn’t follow the provincial trends.
“In my opinion high lending rates are impacting sales greatly in our area as well as we are not seeing the high numbers of relocations at the moment like we did through 2020 -22. Through those years we were seeing more people coming back to the prairies from B.C., Ontario, or other larger centres many of them being early retirement. We are facing concerns with a recession nationally not to mention the inflationary pressures with the cost of living, that coupled with the rising interest rates it’s no wonder our market isn’t as active as previous years,” adds Meredith.
The Unity realtor notes, however, that Saskatchewan remains the number one province for affordability when purchasing a property in Canada, making the market resilient.
Saskatchewan Realtor's Association weighs in
A June story on SASKTODAY.ca, states, “The Saskatchewan Realtors Association says there were 1,736 sales recorded across the province in May, resulting in a four per cent year-over-year decline. However, despite the year-over-year decline, sales levels were 20 per cent above long-term, 10-year averages.
“Saskatchewan continues to benefit from a strong economy which is helping offset some of the impacts of higher lending rates, keeping sales activity above levels seen before the pandemic,” said association CEO Chris Guérette.
“Despite ongoing inventory challenges, our market is once again showing its resilience as sales remain above long-term averages.”
