Affordability the Key Driving June Home Sales to Near Record

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 149 units in June 2015, jumping 38 per cent on a year-over-year basis. This was tied with 2008 for the second best June on record. On a year-to-date basis home sales numbered 608 units, running 7.2 per cent ahead of the first half of 2014.

“After three years of below-average June numbers, sales were quite strong this year, with June activity hitting the highest level of any month in the past five years,” said Jamie Winkler, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With demand running strong and supply moving in the opposite direction, increased tightness in the market is leading to higher prices.”

The average price of homes sold in June 2015 was $168,879, down 2.6 per cent from June 2014. This was still the second highest average price on record. The year-to-date average sale price was $159,893, an increase of 3.3 per cent from 2014. New listings numbered 232 units in June, falling 2.5 per cent from the same month last year. There were 632 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of June 2015. This fell 15.2 per cent from June 2014. There were 4.2 months of inventory at the end of June 2015, down from 6.9 months a year earlier and was below the long-run average for this time of the year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.