Chatham-Kent home sales slow in March

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 80 units in March 2015, down 10.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis. “While March sales were a little slower than normal, activity for the first quarter as a whole was up more than seven per cent from 2014 on the strength of sales in January and February,” said Jamie Winkler, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “There was a significant drop in new supply in February, which may have constrained sales earlier in March. New supply has now bounced back, so we may see those listings showing up as sales in April.”

On a year-to-date basis home sales numbered 218 units, up 7.4 per cent compared to the first three months of 2014. The average price of homes sold in March 2015 was $163,723, up 3.1 per cent from March 2014. The year-to-date average sale price was $153,972, an increase of 5.9 per cent from 2014. New listings numbered 206 units in March, unchanged from the same month last year.

There were 543 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of March 2015. This was down 7.3 per cent from March 2014. There were 6.8 months of inventory at the end of March 2015, up slightly from 6.6 months a year earlier and on par with 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.