KITCHENER -- While the number of house sales in K-W has dropped compared to October of 2020, prices are continuing to go up, as the average cost to buy a detached home closes in on $1 million.

In a Wednesday news release, the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors says the average cost of a residential property in the area is $841,764. This is a 61 per cent increase from October of last year and a 6.1 per cent increase from September 2021 in terms of all residential properties.

However, when just looking at detached homes, that average price tag increases to $997,654, up 34.2 per cent from last year and 3.5 per cent from September.

A total of 593 homes were sold in Kitchener-Waterloo last month, which is 11.1 per cent less than October sales of 2020 and 16.5 per cent less than September.

“While not as red-hot as last year’s record-breaking October, it was still a higher-than-normal number of home sales for the month, and the second-highest October on record,” said Nicole Pohl, KWAR’s president, in the release. “The number of listings coming on the market can scarcely keep up with the demand for homes in Waterloo region, and the continued price growth we see in October reflects this.”

In a subsequent interview with CTV, the vice president of KWAR, Megan Bell, says Kitchener-Waterloo has the tightest supply in the country.

“I think it’s important to point out that we have half a month’s supply,” Bell said. “Traditionally for a balanced market we have about a supply of about three months, and this time last year we were sitting a month’s supply.”

Bell added the monthly average sale price of detached homes could top the $1 million dollar mark in the new year.

“We do still have a lot of people coming into town. We have a lot of our buyers trying to move within town, so I could see that happening yes,” added Bell.

There were 348 detached homes, 84 condos, 40 semi-detached, and 121 townhouses sold in K-W in October. The average price for condos was just under $465,000, while the average price for townhouses was just over $693,000.

The total number of homes available for sale at the end of October was just under 300.

"What this means for people looking to enter the market is you have to be a little more savvy," said Bell. "We have to do our due dilligence up front, and I think people have to start looking at different types of products such as condos, maybe some condo towns to get into the market, build their equity, and then they can move into that single detached home."

With reporting from CTV Kitchener's Tegan Versolatto