Chatham-Kent real estate market still very tight

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 50 units in January 2018, down 23.1% (15 sales) on a year-over-year basis from January 2017. “Home sales activity in the region quieted down to start 2018, with the January sales figure coming in a little below average for the first month of the year,” said Steve Carroll, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “It has been suggested that activity may have been pulled forward late last year in advance of tougher mortgage rules that came into effect on January 1. It may take a few months for things to balance out.”

The average price of homes sold in January 2018 was $182,312, up 7.6% from January 2017. New listings numbered 92 units in January 2018, down 11.5% from the same month in 2017. This was the lowest level for the month in three decades. There were just 205 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of January 2018. This was a record low for this time of year.

There were just 4.1 months of inventory at the end of January 2018, unchanged compared to January 2017 and a record low 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.