The number of homes sold may be down in Chatham-Kent, but when houses do sell they are going for record high prices.
According to the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors, 67 homes were sold last month. That is down just over 10 per cent from February 2018. So far in 2019, sales are actually up almost 14 per cent with 139 homes sold through the first two months this year. The president of the association, Steve Caroll, said activity cooled in February following a strong end to 2018 and a "decent" January.
“It’s hard to say how much of these fluctuations in sales are a demand story and to what extent they’re a supply story because the number of listings out there for buyers to choose from remains historically very low," Caroll said. "If the story is more about a demand-supply imbalance, then you would expect that to spill over onto the price side of things, and that is exactly what is going on right now.”
The average price of homes sold in February was a record $250,216, jumping 41 per cent from the same month in 2018. In a release, the association said the more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $233,848, a 32.4 per cent increase. There were 102 new residential listings in February this year, down 4.7 per cent on a year-over-year basis. There were 178 active residential listings at the end of the month, a decrease of 14.4 per cent from the end of February last year and marked the lowest level ever recorded at this time of year.
Months of inventory was at 2.7 at the end of February, down a from 2.8 in 2018 and well below the long-run average of 7.5 for this time of year. The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell all the listed homes right now at the current rate of sales.