Chatham-Kent home sales rebound in August

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 155 units in August 2017, rising 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. This marked the second best month of August on record after 2007. On year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 995 units over the first eight months of the year, down just 2.4% from the same period in 2016. This also stands less than 3% below the record from 2007 and above all other years. “Following a quiet month of July, home sales bounced right back in August to reach one of the higher levels ever for activity in the Chatham-Kent region,” said Kristi Willder, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “New listings also popped up in August, which gave buyers a little more choice. That said, the overall number of homes listed for sale is still near record lows.”

The average price of homes sold in August 2017 was $185,928, up 10.8% from August 2016. The year-to-date average price was $188,178, rising 16.5% from the first eight months of last year. New listings numbered 186 units in August, rising 6.9% from the same month in 2016. There were just 353 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of August 2017. This was the lowest level for this time of year in more than 25 years, down 24.4% from August 2016.

There were just 2.3 months of inventory at the end of August 2017, down from 3.2 months reported a year earlier and less than half 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.