Chatham-Kent home sales on track for best year on record in 2016

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 113 units in October 2016, rising 20.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis. Sales numbered 1,265 over the first ten months of the year, up 15.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis. “October added to the list of record and near-record months over the last six months that have put sales activity in the Chatham-Kent region on the path to setting a new annual record in 2016,” said Barb Phillips, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “Despite active listings trending downward and historically tight market conditions, price gains have been modest with the year-to-date average price up just one per cent from a year earlier.”

The average price of homes sold in October 2016 was $167,298, down five per cent from October 2015. The less volatile year-to-date average sale price was $162,207, up one per cent from the same period in 2015. New listings numbered 156 units in October, down 22.4 per cent from the same month last year. There were 409 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of October 2016. This was down 26 per cent from October 2015, and marks the lowest level for active supply at this time of the year in more than two decades.

There was a near record low 3.6 months of inventory at the end of October 2016, down from 5.9 months a year earlier and well 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.