As the real estate market in Weyburn continues to stay tight, local realtors have borrowed a page from larger centres when homes in certain price ranges come under high demand.

The City of Weyburn, meanwhile, is scrambling as their supply of residential lots has now been depleted, said community services manager Doug Mulhall.

Some price ranges are in high demand right now, particularly between $100-200,000, with some realtors having waiting lists of people waiting for a home in the right price range.

For those with a high level of interest, some realtors are leaving the home open to bids for a week, which are then submitted to the owner to accept or reject as they see fit.

As realtor Marion Severson explained, it's similar in some ways to the tendering process that the City of Weyburn undergoes for services or supplies.

She said recently they did this with two homes, one on Ash Drive and the other on 13th Street.

"We left it for offers, for viewing for a week. We didn't present any of the offers until the last day, then we presented all the offers. We showed it for a whole because we had so many buyers in that price range," she explained, adding the owners then went through all the offers. One went for more than list price, while the other went for the list price.

The realtors in Weyburn had Al Jacobson of the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission come down to do a workshop on this practice, as up to now only realtors in Regina and Saskatoon have resorted to this when there's a particularly high demand on houses.

"The $100-200,000 price is probably the most popular, with the most demand for three-bedroom bungalows. Some are first-time buyers, but we're also having a lot of people coming in to Weyburn," said Severson.

She added this "is not just for any house. That is how they're selling a lot of houses in Regina and Saskatoon," noting an example where a house in Regina went for $162,000 over the list price by using this method.

She said as Jacobson told them, there are pros and cons to selling a house this way as opposed to the traditional way of listing it.

Of the housing market in Weyburn right now, "It's tight. There's such a demand out there, the demand outweighs the supply by far. If I get a house listed at $150,000-180,000, I have 15 to 20 people looking in that price range right now. It's frustrating for buyers right now."

The tight market has also affected the City, as Mulhall notes the city has sold 50 lots so far this year, basically depleting their inventory other than a couple lots on South Hill. The city is now taking names on a waiting list, and are waiting for weather to allow contractors to move in and develop some new lots in the Silver Heights subdivision.

Building permits for new homes are up, with 49 dwellings created to date worth some $8 million, compared to 15 at this time a year ago. A total of 83 building permits have been issued so far worth $10.2 million.