Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®

Residential sales activity recorded through the MLS® System of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS® numbered 65 units in April 2020. This was a large 42.5% decline from April 2019 and was the lowest level of sales for the month in three decades.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled 340 units over the first four months of the year. This edged down 3.1% (11 sales) from the same period in 2019.

“As anticipated, home sales and listings were down significantly in April as measures to tackle the public health crisis put a pause on a lot of market activity,” said Michael Gibbons, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of REALTORS®. “Still, the average price of the homes that did sell hit another record amid the lowest inventories ever in the region.”

The average price of homes sold in April 2020 was a record $288,797, rising 11.2% from April 2019. The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $269,638, rising 10.5% from the first four months of 2019

There were 83 new residential listings in April 2020, dropping 54.9% on a year-over-year basis. Overall supply is currently trending at record lows. Active residential listings numbered only 146 units at the end of April, down 38.9% from the end of April 2019.

Months of inventory numbered 2.2 at the end of April 2020, little changed from the 2.1 months recorded at the end of April 2019 and well below the long-run average of 4.2 months 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.