The president of the Sarnia Lambton Real Estate Board is stressing the need for new housing in the area.
Donna Mathewson said small bungalows are still in high demand, and Sarnia's aging community is having a tough time finding post-retirement homes.
She welcomed city council's approval Monday of a new residential development at the former Bright's Grove Golf Course.
"There has been a demand for retirees to have a place to retire to," said Mathewson. "If they're looking to have a new home, and they want to have something that's not overly large-- couple bedrooms, finished basement-- we really don't have a lot of product for those people to look at."
Mathewson spoke about the positive spinoffs of the development during Monday's council meeting.
She said it would also benefit those looking to buy their first home.
"Real estate is cyclical, we need it to be a continuous circle. We need product for people to move into in their later years, we also need product for people to move into to start out with," said Mathewson. "Everybody affects everybody else. First time home buyers, we need those people to be buying so that people can move up and then hopefully eventually move into the home they're going to retire in."
The latest city hall building stats show there were no permits issued for new single-family homes in February, and just one in January, compared to 15 through the first two months of 2018.
The resale market remained solid in February with 110 properties worth $35.4 million selling, a dollar volume increase of nearly 22 per cent over the same month last year.
The month finished with 154 new listings, 134 being residential, an increase of over 20 per cent from last year.
Mathewson said the average residential sale price of $303,000 shows a steady increase of 5 per cent over last year.
