Chatham-Kent home sales decline a bit in July

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 101 units in July 2017, dropping 39.2% on a year-over-year basis. On year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 840 units over the first seven months of the year, down 4% from the same period in 2016. Year-to-date sales activity has gone from running at a record level to coming in below where it stood last year.

“Activity quieted down noticeably in July 2017, although the year-over-year comparison to last July stretches the point by virtue of the fact that July 2016 was close to being the best month for sales the region has ever seen,” said Kristi Willder, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “The bigger picture is that sales in July came in about 25 transactions below average for the month, and the coinciding moderation in the average price suggests the cooling off occurred at the higher end of the market. We will be keeping a close eye in the months ahead to gauge whether this is the start of a new trend or just a blip.”

The average price of homes sold in July 2017 was $160,597, up 3.5% from July 2016. The year-to-date average price was $188,593, rising 17.5% from the first seven months of last year. New listings numbered 203 units in July, down 4.6% from the same month in 2016. There were just 373 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of July 2017. This was a record-low for this time of year, down 24% from July 2016. There were just 3.7 months of inventory at the end of July 2017, up from three months reported a year earlier but still well below the long-run average for this time of 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.