The number of homes sold via the MLS® System of the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board totaled 217 units in December 2019. This was a 83.9% surge from December 2018 and marked the second-best ever December result after 2015.

On an annual basis, home sales totalled 2,809 units over the course of 2019, edging down just 0.7% from 2018.

“2019 was a recovery year for home sales across much of the country, but that was particularly true in our local market, where activity started the year near the lowest levels of the past decade and finished back pushing 2015-2017 levels,” said Kyle Nason, President of the Chilliwack & District Real Estate Board. “It’s amazing how fast that surge of activity near the end of 2019 was able to draw the supply of homes for sale right back down into seller’s territory, but that is where things stand heading into 2020.”

The average price of homes sold in December 2019 was $530,152, climbing 9.2% from December 2018.

The more comprehensive annual average price was $522,776, edging up 1.1% from all of 2018.

There were 177 new residential listings in December 2019. This was an increase of 15.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Even so, active residential listings numbered just 696 units at the end of December, a 29.5% drop from the end of December 2018.

Months of inventory numbered just 3.2 at the end of December 2019, down from the 8.4 months recorded at the end of December 2018 and just half the 10-year average of 7.6 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The combined dollar value of all home sales in December 2019 was $115 million, more than double a year earlier and a new record for the month of December.

Sales of all property types numbered 229 units in December 2019, jumping 70.9% from December 2018. The total value of all properties sold was $124.8 million, an 89.1% surge from December 2018.