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The total amount of homes sales in January was $43.5 million, a decrease of 18.8 per cent from January 2020.
While supply continues to be the greatest issue, it isn’t for want of trying. The city and Oxford County’s lower-tier municipalities regularly approve planning applications that bring in new residential developments.
In the city’s annual building report, the majority of the construction that took place in 2020 was for residential development. According to the city staff report, $176 million in construction was approved for 522 residential units.
In other parts of the county, subdivisions in Innerkip, Tavistock, Norwich and Thamesford will see construction crews as regular fixtures.
For Woodstock and Oxford County, the attractive location on the Highway 401 and 403 hub has led to significant interest to the region. The availability of jobs and one of the strongest economies in Southwestern Ontario has also made the region a popular spot.
The real estate board’s region only had 88 new residential listings last month – a decline of 37.1 per cent from January 2020 – making it the fewest new listings ever for a January.
The area had 59 homes listed at the end of the month, which was the lowest amount in January in the past three decades.
The months of inventory, which is the amount of time it would take to sell existing inventories at the current rate of sales, is 0.9. At the end of January 2020, it was 1.6 months while the long-term average was 4.9 months.
“The unsustainably low overall inventory combined with new lockdown measures in the province are starting to have a major impact on sales and listings alike,” Porter said. “The headline story for real estate in our region right now is you cannot buy what is not for sale.”
