Chatham-Kent home sales on track for best year since 2008

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 89 units in November 2015, up 32.8 per cent year-over-year, albeit from slow November last year. On a year-to-date basis home sales numbered 1,182 units, running 4.3 per cent ahead of the first 11 months of 2014. This was the best figure for the period since 2008.

“Home sales activity is currently running right in line with historical averages, with November’s big year-over-year really just a reflection of how quiet things were in the same month last year,” said Jamie Winkler, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With home sales on track to see their best year since 2008 and listings sitting at historically low levels right now, average sale prices have been picking up.” The average price of homes sold in November 2015 was a record $146,667, up five per cent from November 2014. The year-to-date average sale price was $159,501, an increase of 4.8 per cent from 2014.

New listings numbered 137 units in November, a decrease of 2.8 per cent from the same month last year. There were 528 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of November 2015. This was down 5.7 per cent from November 2014. There were 5.9 months of inventory at the end of November 2015, down from 8.4 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.