February home sales in Chatham-kent up 36% from one year ago

February home sales in Chatham-kent were up by more than a third from the same month last year, local real estate officials say.

Eighty-three homes sold last month, up 36.1 per cent from February 2023, increase, the Chatham-kent Association of Realtors said in a release Monday.

But sales were still 9.8 per cent below the five-year average and 4.8 per cent below the 10-year average for February, they added.

On a year-to-date basis, sales totalled 144 over the first two months of the year. That's up 22 per cent from the same period last year.

“Home sales and new listings are both leading the recovery in our local market, with sales activity marking a particularly strong comeback from last year's 10-year low,” association president Carrie Patrick said.

“As a result of demand and new supply rising in tandem, overall inventories haven't really shifted much in the past few months, although this individual metric isn't telling the story of what's going on under the surface,” she added. “On the price side, we're still seeing a softer environment as sellers continue to adapt their pricing strategies to move inventory that's been sitting on the market for longer.”

The average price of homes sold in February was $409,027, down 4.2 per cent from the same month last year, the association said. The more comprehensive year-to-date average price was $404,978, down 2.4 per cent from the first two months of 2023.

The dollar value of all sales last month was $33.9 million, up 30.3 per cent from the same month last year. The number of new listings was up 18.2 per cent.

The 169 new residential listings in February were the largest number added in the month in more than a decade.

New listings were 15.9 per cent above the five-year average and 29.6 per cent above the 10-year average for February.

There were 316 active residential listings on the market at the end of February, up six per cent from the same time in 2023.

Active listings haven't been this high in February for more than five years, the association said.