Chatham-Kent’s red-hot real estate market of 2016 remains sizzling – for most of those selling their homes.
But it can be ice cold for people looking to buy, as inventory has thinned out. There just aren’t enough homes for sale right now to placate the buyers, according to Kristi Willder, president of the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors.
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“It’s very challenging to be a buyer. I have a couple of buyers who have lost out on a few bids,” she said. “There are multiple offers on homes. Some of the homes are even selling over list price.”
The market is so hot on homes in the $120,000-$300,000 range that some are sold shortly after they are listed, Willder said.
“Some homes list one day and by the next there’s an offer on the table. If it’s a cash offer, they’re selling that day,” she said. “If it has conditions, it’s usually within 10 days.”
Willder said the C-K real estate market went from being buyer friendly to seller friendly very quickly, adding low interest rates encourage people to purchase as opposed to rent.
The average price of homes sold in February was $179,485, up 16.6 per cent from February 2016. This was the second highest level on record. The year-to-date average price was $175,703, rising 14.3 per cent from the first two months of the year.
There were 242 active residential listings on the association’s MLS system at the end of February. That’s down more than 50 per cent from February of 2016 and marks the lowest level on record for for-sale inventory at this time of the year.
Willder said the market is also heavy with first-time buyers, or people moving out of their first home into their next.
It’s not just local buyers spending the money to pick up the homes, Willder said. She said a survey last fall indicated nearly 40 per cent of the homes sold in Chatham-Kent were purchased by out-of-town buyers.
“Some are moving here. Some are purchasing rental properties,” she said. “With our low housing prices, people are moving because they can afford a house here.”
Willder said one of her clients was a man from Kitchener who worked in Windsor and London.
“We’re right in between. He could get more for his money here,” she said.
As warm as the market is for people selling their homes, with people at times getting more than what their home was listed for, Willder said it has led to some caution.
“It’s very tough for sellers, as if their homes sell quickly, they don’t know where they’ll go,” she said. “People are just staying in their houses as opposed to moving.”
Willder doesn’t think things will change overnight, either.
“I think we’ll see it like this for a while longer. I don’t see it letting up any time soon,” she said. “I do hope the spring brings more listings.”
Home sales in Chatham-Kent in February reached 108 units, a rise of more than 25 per cent compared to February of 2016, according to the association.
Over the first two months of this year, 173 homes have sold, up 21 per cent from the same time last year.
