Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® welcomes new President for 2021-amidst a hot December market

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® totaled 85 units in December 2020. This was a large increase of 37.1% from December 2019 and was a new sales record for the month of December. “Buyer fatigue due to competing offers, was a contributing factor,” said Laura Tourangeau incoming President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®

On an annual basis, home sales totaled 1,344 units over the course of 2020 This edged up 1% (13 sales) from the same period in 2019.
“MLS® resale home sales in Chatham – Kent set a new monthly record in December. The lack of inventory throughout 2020 played a huge part in this increase,” said Laura Tourangeau, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “Once again, new listings could not keep up with the pace of sales in December, reducing overall inventory to below 100 homes for the first time in over 30 years. The current lack of active listings is acting as a constraint on our local market, sustaining some of the tightest market conditions we have ever seen in our region.”
The average price of homes sold in December 2020 was a record $344,951, rising 27.8% from December 2019.

The more comprehensive annual average price was $310,244, rising 23.4% from all of 2019.
The dollar value of all home sales in December 2020 was $29.3 million, a large increase of 75.2% from the same month in 2019. This was also a new record for the month of December.
There were 76 new residential listings in December 2020. This edged up 2.7% (two listings) from the end of December 2019.

Active residential listings numbered 88 units at the end of December. This was a large decline of 48.2% from the end of December 2019. “Active listings haven’t been this low in the month of December in more than 25 years,” said Laura.
There was just one month of inventory at the end of December 2020, down from the 2.7 months recorded at the end of December 2019 and well below the long-run average of 6.1 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.