Chatham-Kent home sales post average May amid low supply

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 141 units in May 2018. This was a decrease of 18% from the all-time monthly record in May 2017. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 515 units over the first five months of the year. This was a decrease of 12.9% from the same period in 2017.

“Home sales were running in line with their 10-year average in May, but even that average level of activity may be hard to maintain going forward if new listings don’t start to pick up,” said Steve Carroll, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With supply as low as it is, prices continue trending at record levels. This was again borne out in May, with the average price setting yet another new all-time record.” The average price of homes sold in May 2018 was a record $214,832, up 3.1% from May 2017. The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $199,904, up 5.9% from the first five months of 2017.

There were 172 new residential listings in May 2018. This was down 26.8% on a year-over-year basis and marked the lowest level for the month in 25 years. Active residential listings numbered just 170 units at the end of May, plunging 48.3% from the end of May 2017. It was the lowest inventory reading at any point ever in the region.

Months of inventory numbered a record-low 1.2 at the end of May 2018, down from the 1.9 months recorded at the end of May 2017 and well below the long-run average of 5.7 months 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.