With the housing market still as tight as ever, prices continue to push higher

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 130 units in October 2017, rising 15% on a year-over-year basis from last year to a new record for the month of October. On year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 1,244 units over the first 10 months of the year, down just 1.7% from the same period in 2016. This marks the third highest sales figure on record for the period behind 2016 and 2007. “Home sales bounced back following a very brief slowdown in July and they continue to move higher, with October hitting a record for that month,” said Kristi Willder, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “With the market still as tight as ever, prices continue to push higher.” The average price of homes sold in October 2017 was $185,477, up 10.9% from October 2016. The less volatile year-to-date average price was $185,154, rising 14.1% from the first ten months of last year.

New listings numbered 182 units in October, up 16.7% from the same month in 2016. This was in line with the long-run average for this time of the year. There were just 320 active residential listings on the Association’s MLS® System at the end of October 2017. This was the lowest level for this time of year in more than 25 years, down 21.8% from October 2016.

There were just 2.5 months of inventory at the end of October 2017, down from 3.6 months reported a year earlier and less than half the long-run average 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.