Being an essential service does not mean business as usual in real estate

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 97 units in March 2020. This edged down 2% (two sales) from March 2019. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled a record 275 units over the first three months of the year. This was an increase of 15.5% from the same period in 2019.

“With the Government issuing a State of Emergency, it is apparent that sellers are heeding to the recommendations of no face to face activity, which made the first half of the month look very different from the second half,” said Michael Gibbons, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “Due to the current self isolation practices new listings were down considerably, and the number of homes for sale on the market to start April was the lowest ever. If you MUST be in the Market, REALTORS(R) will provide ESSENTIAL assistance. The reality is that it is NOT business as usual and won’t be for some time.”

The average price of homes sold in March 2020 was $264,781, rising 10% from March 2019. The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $265,109, rising 12% from the first three months of 2019
There were 101 new residential listings in March 2020. This was a large decline of 32.7% on a year-over-year basis.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing lack of inventory, overall supply is currently trending at record lows. Active residential listings numbered 145 units at the end of March. This was down 27.1% from the end of March 2019.
Months of inventory numbered 1.5 at the end of March 2020, down from the 2 months recorded at the end of March 2019 and below the long-run average of 4.5 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.

The Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® represents 165 REALTORS® registered with its member offices. The geographical area served by the Board is the municipality of Chatham-Kent in the heart of southwestern Ontario.