WINDSOR, ONT. -- The average price of homes sold in Chatham-Kent last month has gone up 42.4 per cent from the same time last year, according to the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors.

The average price of homes sold in January 2021 was a record $350,453, and the number of homes sold through the MLS System of the association totaled 105 units.

"Home sales have started off on a very strong foot in 2021," said Laura Tourangeau, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors "Demand for properties bounced back very quickly in the second half of 2020 and that strength has continued into 2021.”

The number of homes sold this January saw an increase of 14.1 per cent from last year, making a new sales record for the month of January.

The Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors says the dollar value of all the homes sold last month was $36.8 million which is a 62.5 per cent gain from January 2020 and a new record for the month.

There were 91 new residential listings last month which is a decrease of 13.3 per cent or 14 listings from the end of January 2020.

“New listings have struggled to keep up with demand, and we will need to see how many come onto the market in the spring. With levels of supply at all-time lows buyers have needed to compete to get the properties they want, and that has resulted in significant price gains,” said Tourangeau.

Active residential listings included 59 units at the end of January which is a decline of 60.1 per cent from the end of the same time last year.

The Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors says active listings haven’t been that low in January in more than three decades.

Houses didn’t stay on the market too long, with the average months of inventory totalling 0.6 at the end of January 2021, that’s down from the 1.6 months recorded at the end of last January and below the long-time average of 5.7 months for this time of year.

The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell inventories at the current rate of sales activity, the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors says.

The Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors represents 187 local realtors.