Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® MLS® home sales down, showing slow start to 2023

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® totaled 57 units in January 2023. This was a big decline of 44.1% from January 2022.

Home sales were 34% below the five-year average and 19.4% below the 10-year average for the month of January.

“Much to nobody’s surprise we are starting 2023 off where 2022 finished, with sales activity remaining at historically subdued levels,” said Matt Bechard, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “It appears that the Bank of Canada may have topped out its interest rate increases for now, but there is still a lot of catching up to do in terms of absorbing the multiple rate hikes from last year. Given the climate of economic uncertainty and the time it will take for the impact of the rate hikes to fully pass through, it may be the case that we see a relatively more subdued spring uptick than we are used to seeing in the past. That said, overall inventory levels have gained back a healthy amount of supply and the market is firmly positioned in favour of buyers, so the incentive for sidelined buyers to return is out there.”

The average price of homes sold in January 2023 was $402,156, a sharp decrease of 12% from January 2022.

The dollar value of all home sales in January 2023 was $22.9 million, a substantial decline of 50.8% from the same month in 2022.

The number of new listings saw a jump of 45.7% from January 2022. There were 153 new residential listings in January 2023. This was the largest number of new listings added in the month of January in more than five years.

New listings were 38.8% above the five-year average and 28% above the 10-year average for the month of January.

Active residential listings numbered 284 units on the market at the end of January, more than double the levels from a year earlier, rocketing up 323.9% from the end of January 2022. Active listings haven’t been this high in the month of January in more than five years.

Active listings were 92.2% above the five-year average and 11% above the 10-year average for the month of January.

Months of inventory numbered 5 at the end of January 2023, up from the 0.7 months recorded at the end of January 2022 and above the long-run average of 4.3 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.