Chatham-Kent home sales surge to December record

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 80 units in December 2018 – a new record for the month. It was a jump of 33.3% from December 2017.

On an annual basis, home sales totalled 1,289 units in 2018. This was down 4.9% from 2017 but was still one of the better years on record. “With the market still starved for supply, even a big jump in new supply is likely to get scooped up quickly, and that’s exactly what appears to have happened in December with a big increase in new listings coinciding with a record December for sales,” said Steve Carroll, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “It is only one month of data, but if the increase in new supply were to be sustained it would eventually start to take some of the pressure off prices.”

The average price of homes sold in December 2018 was $214,094, surging 31.4% from December 2017. The more comprehensive annual average price was $214,078 in 2018, rising 17.7% from 2017. There were 95 new residential listings in December 2018, a huge 163.9% increase on a year-over-year basis. Active residential listings numbered 195 units at the end of 2018, up just 0.5% (one listing) from the end of 2017 but below the end of every other year on record.

Months of inventory numbered 2.4 at the end of 2018, down from the 3.2 months recorded at the end of 2017 and a record low for the end 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.