The total residential benchmark price for real estate property in Moose Jaw is increasing at the fastest rate of any city in the province. 

Moose Jaw’s benchmark was at $244,600 at the end of May. That was an increase of 8.2 per cent over this same time period last year. Moose Jaw has also experienced increases over the past four months. 

Sales also continued to be strong for Moose Jaw. There were 62 houses sold on the real estate market in the month of May. That is an increase of 19.7 per cent year-to-date. It is also an increase over the 10-year average year-to-year and year-to-date. 

“When you look at the last couple of months, sales in Moose Jaw have been very, very strong. In some cases, I think it was north of 50 per cent above what we typically see for this time of year,” said Saskatchewan Realtor's Association Director of Public Affairs and Communications Cole Zawislak. 

Inventory continues to be a concern for the Moose Jaw real estate market. There were 86 new listings in May and 150 inventory. However, inventory is trending downward.  

Zawislak said the real estate industry and waiting to see the effects the Bank of Canada’s recent interest rate cuts will have on the market. 

“We’ve heard from agents with boots on the ground that there’s some folks that were holding off, waiting to list their existing property, waiting for a rate cut to do that. So it remains to be seen what’s going to happen if the rate cut is going to bring some new inventory to market,” he said. 

The Bank of Canada announced it was cutting key interest rates to 4.75 per cent and policy rates by 25 basis points. 

“Twenty-five basis points and potentially more to come might be enough to get folks to be comfortable moving on from that rate and may securing a different rate on a new property. But year, it remains to be seen what that’s going to do,” Zawislak said. 

There is 2.42 months of supply in Moose Jaw at the end of May and that is also trending downward.