Chatham-Kent home sales looking to set new record for 2016

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 144 units in August 2016, rising 4.3 per cent on a year-over-year basis. Sales numbered 1,019 over the first eight months of the year, up 14.8 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

“After having surged to the highest level in July home sales dipped slightly in August, although they’re still at very strong levels, said Barb Phillips, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With four months left to go this year, 2016 is in the running to set a new annual sales record. Activity for the year-to-date is trailing the all-time record from 2007 by just two sales.” The average price of homes sold in August 2016 was $167,759, up 6.3 per cent from August 2015. The less volatile year-to-date average sale price was $161,583, up two per cent from the same period in 2015.

New listings numbered 174 units in August, falling 0.6 per cent from the same month last year. There were 467 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of August 2016. This was down 22.8 per cent from August 2015. “This marks the lowest level of homes available to buy for this season in more than twenty years,” Phillips said. There was a near record low 3.2 months of inventory at the end of August 2016, down from 4.4 months a year earlier and well below the long-run average for this time 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.