Saskatoon's Building Boom Is Unprecedented

While most of the country is suffering from fewer jobs, higher unemployment, lower building permits, Saskatoon is one of a few regions in Canada that has bucked the trend. 

Saskatoon passed $1 billion in permit values in 2012.

If anybody is wondering why Saskatoon is booming, the number one reason is because of construction.  But if we take a look at the above graph we see that residential permits are the biggest driver of construction growth in this city by a long shot.  2012 absolutely dwarfs 2007's residential building boom.

The biggest part of job growth is without a doubt real estate related.

If we strip away all real estate related jobs ( FIRE and construction sectors) we see that job growth in all other industries has barely budged in 5 years.

 

 

 

The next graph compares resources and construction employment.  Over 10% of Saskatoon workers are employed in construction.  4% are employed in resources.

 

 

 



Another graph of note.

Both of the above rates are down about 5% from the peak, but most jurisdictions would love to have these numbers right now.

The numbers show that if not for real estate related employment, there really is no job boom in this city.  To me, that is very interesting, as we are leading the nation in population growth.    Do we need more homes built because more people are moving here? And are more people moving here because we need more workers to build and renovate homes?  The numbers suggest this is happening to some extent.A few things to watch this year are population growth, home inventory and credit conditions.

If some of you are have not heard, Montreal is sitting at 14 months of inventory, Toronto's real estate market is wobbling, and Vancouver's real estate market is basically crashing. I wonder if this will have any impact on a place like Saskatoon.