Chatham-Kent home sales post large year-over-year increase in July

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 123 units in July 2018. This was an increase of 28.1% from July 2017. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 756 units over the first seven months of the year, down 3.9% from the same period in 2017.

“Home sales posted a solid showing in July, in line with the five-year average and above the longer 10-year average for that month,” said Steve Carroll, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “About the big year-over-year increases in both sales activity and in particular the average price in July, they should probably be taken with a grain of salt since they are as much or more about the weak month of July we had last year.”

The year-to-date average price was $205,928, rising 11.8% from the first seven months of 2017. Active residential listings numbered 232 units at the end of July. This was down 28.4% from the end of July 2017 and marked the lowest level on record for this month. Months of inventory numbered a record-low 1.9 at the end of July 2018, down from the 3.4 months recorded at the end of July 2017 and well below the long-run average of 6.2 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.