The red-hot housing market in Chatham-Kent is finally starting to cool off, according to the president of the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors (CKAR).
Amber Pinsonneault said that buying and selling activity should start to slow down further this fall and the price of a home will likely be coming down more over the next few months as well.
"There's a bit of a standoff between buyers and sellers right now as to who is going to give first, but it's definitely balancing, which is better for giving buyers more opportunity to be able to have conditions and in their offer and not be in such competition," said Pinsonneault.
Pinsonneault said the average price of a local home is coming down but remains strong, adding the local housing market is not expected to crash anytime soon. A housing crash is when there are too many listings for the demand, causing prices to plummet quickly.
"The worst has happened now. So, our highest prices have hit and now we're cooling and having a bit more balance in our market. There's no real estate crash coming, not in Chatham-Kent in terms of how affordable it is in comparison to other cities," she said.
According to the latest report from CKAR, the average price of a the homes that sold last month in Chatham-Kent was $475,985, a noticeable drop from $498,325 in April and $522,605 in March.
In terms of total sales, Pinsonneault says those numbers returned to more normal levels last month. Pinsonneault said 142 local homes were sold last month, which was a sharp drop of 17.4 per cent from May of 2021. On a year-to-date basis, home sales totaled 652 units over the first five months of the year, a decrease of 8.3 per cent from the same period last year.
She said new listings are making a strong comeback as well. There were 260 new residential listings in May of 2022, which was the largest number of new listings added in the month of May in more than five years.
"Sales activity was down from the record May last year but still managed to post a typical showing for this time of year. Many other markets in the province are currently trending below-average levels for sales activity at the moment," said Pinsonneault. "The huge boost in new supply coming onto the market was a welcome sign, although overall available inventories are still trending close to their record lows. If the strength in new listings keeps up as demand moderates in response to the recent interest rate increases, we may see a move back to more balanced market conditions through the second half of 2022."
Pinsonneault also expects the cooling market will benefit more first-time homebuyers who were priced out for the last two years. She says learning about new housing programs is the best way to deal with rising interest rates currently underway.
"The interest rates rising is definitely out of our control. However, first time home buyers, there are some programs coming to be able to help them. We love to educate people on programs that are there to assist even if interest rates are rising," Pinsonneault said.
Pinsonneault said her group is always lobbying the province and the federal government to help buyers.
She also said she likes the stiffer penalties and fines that are coming to keep rogue realtors from breaking the rules and to help maintain the industry's good reputation.