One month into the record-breaking year that Kitchener-Waterloo’s residential real estate sector saw in 2016, there were 1,068 homes listed for sale.

At the same point in 2017, there were only 367 active listings.

And that, local Realtors say, is why there’s no sign of either demand or price increases stopping anytime soon.

“The continued strong demand combined with a tight supply of listings means that many properties are not on the market for very long,” Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors president James Craig said in a media release.

“This has created an extremely competitive buying environment.”

The buying environment is so competitive, in fact, that January marked the second straight month where the average sale price of a detached home locally topped $500,000.

With condos, townhouses and semi-detached homes factored in, the average sale price was $421,104 – or 19 per cent higher than it had been one year earlier.

Despite the comparatively low number of homes being listed for sale, January 2017 was the busiest January for the local real estate market since 2010, as 327 properties changed hands.

On average, homes sold in January were on the market for barely more than three weeks.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors handles most residential real estate transactions in Kitchener, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.