Home Sales hit all time record for 2016 inventory at lowest ever!

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 81 units in December 2016, rising 17.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

Sales numbered 1,467 for 2016 as a whole. This was an increase of 17.3 per cent from 2015, and marked the strongest year ever for the Chatham-Kent region. “Not only was 2016 the best year for home sales the region has ever seen, monthly sales momentum in November and December suggests the market could even strengthen further in 2017,” said Kristi Willder, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® for 2017. “That said, with supply now at an all-time low, 2017 may be defined more by how many sellers are out there rather than how many buyers there are. As such, we might see some of the bigger numbers showing up on the price side this year.”

The average price of homes sold in December 2016 was $182,815, up 35.7 per cent from December 2015. The far less volatile annual average price increased 3.2 per cent in 2016 to $163,276.New listings numbered 73 units in December, down 15.1 per cent from the same month in 2015.

There were 269 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of December 2016. This was down 35.2 per cent from December 2015, and marks the lowest level on record for active supply at this time of the year. There was a near-record low 3.3 months of inventory at the end of December 2016, down from six 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.