Chatham-Kent home sales post strong April; listings still near all-time lows

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 127 units in April 2018. This was down just 3.8% (five sales) from April 2017. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 374 units over the first four months of the year. This was a decrease of 10.7% from the near-record for the same period in 2017 but was still above average. “Home sales were solid in April, not quite as strong as in March but still above the 10-year average for this time of the year,” said Steve Carroll, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With supply as low as it is, it was likely we would see prices begin to re-accelerate. That was certainly the case in April, with the average price jumping to set a new all-time record.” The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $194,276, up 7.5% from the first four months of 2017.

There were 179 new residential listings in April 2018. This was down 8.7% on a year-over-year basis and was the lowest level for the month since 1993. Active residential listings numbered 223 units at the end of April. This was down 25.7% from the end of April 2017 and marked the lowest level on record by a large margin. Months of inventory numbered a record-low 1.8 at the end of April 2018, down from the 2.3 months recorded at the end of April 2017 and well below the long-run average of 5.3 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.