Real estate activity is off to a slow start this year across much of southern New Brunswick.

The Saint John Real Estate Board, in its monthly update, reported just 93 home sales in January.

President Kevin Donovan said that was the lowest single-month total since the beginning of 2018.

“For those keeping track, January’s sales total is the seventh consecutive month-over-month decline,” said Donovan.

Also contributing to the situation is the fact new listings were “far below average” to start the year.

There were 116 new residential listings in January, the lowest number for the month in more than 35 years.

New listings were 36 per cent below the five-year average and nearly 59 per cent below the 10-year average.

That drove overall inventory down to 369 units as of the end of January, which Donovan said was only slightly above the all-time low.

“Although it is not yet definitive, it is reasonable to expect that this is an anomaly and new supply will return to the market as the year progresses, loosening conditions from their current state,” he said.

The low number of new listings forced overall inventory down to its lowest level since February.

According to the board, there were 363 units on the market at the end of December. Active listings have not been this low in the month of December in more than two decades.

The months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — numbered 3.9, up from 2.4 months recorded a year earlier but down from the long-run average of 12 months at this time of year.

Meanwhile, the benchmark price for single-family homes in January was $268,800, up 5.4 per cent year over year.

The Saint John Real Estate Board covers the southern part of New Brunswick to the U.S. border in St. Stephen and includes the counties of Saint John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens.