Home sales hoping to heat up after long cold spring

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 108 units in April 2015, down 13.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

“After a strong first two months of the year home sales activity fell back in March, and that trend continued in April with activity coming in slightly below average for the month,” said Jamie Winkler, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With new listings moving in the opposite direction market conditions are less tight than they were, although you wouldn’t know it from looking at price growth.” On a year-to-date basis home sales numbered 326 units, edging down 0.6 per cent compared to the first four months of 2014.

The average price of homes sold in April 2015 was $161,371, up 4.1 per cent from April 2014. The year-to-date average sale price was $156,423, an increase of 4.9 per cent from 2014. New listings numbered 289 units in April, rising 13.3 per cent from the same month last year. This was the highest level for the month in five years.

There were 652 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of April 2015. This was down 1.8 per cent from April 2014. There were 6.0 months of inventory at the end of April 2015, up from 5.3 months a year earlier and above 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.