A big drop in the number of homes changing hands in Chatham-Kent.

The latest stats from the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors shows a 42.4% decline in the number of homes sold in December 2022, compared to the year before.

In all, just 76 properties were sold across the municipality last month.

On an annual basis, home sales totaled 1,347 units over the course of 2022. This was a substantial decline of 26.6% from the same period in 2021.

“We know that last year was anything but average and this annual figure masks the volatility by blending the highs of spring with the lows of the second half of the year into one number,” said Matt Bechard, President of the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors “The momentum heading into 2023 looks promising, with sales activity still moving up steadily and new listings coming onto the market at very supportive levels. A few more months of this and we can almost call it a return to a more normal market, but we’ll have to wait and see how many buyers step back off the sidelines and return in the spring.”

There were 107 new residential listings in December 2022, the largest number of new listings added in the month of December in more than a decade.

The average price of homes sold in December 2022 was $384,644, a sharp decrease of 12% from December 2021.

The dollar value of all home sales in December 2022 was $29.2 million, a substantial decline of 49.4% from the same month in 2021.