People selling homes in Sarnia-Lambton continue to benefit from low inventory.
Real Estate Board President Rob Longo said there were only 201 new listings in March and 181 homes sold, representing a 34 per cent increase over the same month last year.
"Inventory continues to be at a record low, and we saw because of that pressure on the market, our median sale price went up to almost $450,000 year to date," said Longo. "It's a double-edged sword because it is good for existing homeowners and home sellers to see their equity growing, but it is tough for buyers looking to enter the market."
Longo said new listings were only on the market for an average of eight days in March.
"It is hard to find listings, there's not a lot of homes on the market. In March, we saw a little bit of an uptick, in that over last March, and over March 2019, we saw healthy growth in the number of new listings coming onto the market, however the number of active listings that are still on the market day-to-day remains at a historic low. Any new listings that are coming on, are getting grabbed very quickly and selling very quickly."
At the beginning of April there were only 112 active listings.
"The dollar volume that we saw for March was two-fold, largely because we've seen such a busy market. We've seen a lot of people that are making moves, a lot of new people coming to town, which is a good thing. Also with the increase in prices, obviously prices are up almost 40 per cent over last year, that's what's really pushing those dollar volume numbers up every month that we're seeing."
Longo is hopeful more homes will hit the market in April to ease pressure on buyers.