Everything You Want to Know About the Ottawa Housing Market || Ivana Novakovic
The Ottawa real estate market is selling at an incredible speed. With the average home only staying on the market for 17 days! Most homes however, sell in just six days on market. We have not seen a market like this in decades. Since 2019, homes have been appreciating by tens of thousands of dollars each month and there’s no knowing when it will stop.
There are some skeptics who say this cannot continue on like this, we must be headed towards a recession, homes will start dropping in price. I, however don’t believe this to be the case. I only see more and more buyers trying to buy, and less Sellers trying to sell. There is too much demand and not enough supply. New home builders like Minto, Mattamy, Caivan, etc. can’t even keep up with demand, selling out within minutes of new community and home releases.
I am a Real Estate Agent in Ottawa and I see how fast the market is growing. Most houses that hit the market are priced under market value, this is a tactic Real Estate Agents use to get their Sellers the best price for their home. With the low list price, comes an extreme number of buyers looking at the home. With all these buyers, comes a ton of offers. Typically, the more offers, the higher the sale price. This is what is driving bidding wars. The number of offers on each property is a huge dictator in the upwards market trend. If there are 10 offers on one property, but only one buyer gets the house, where are the other 10 buyers going? There’s no stopping it!
Top Real Estate Agents in Ottawa and the Canadian Real Estate Association predict that the market will increase by 11% in 2022. The average sale price as of March 2022 is $752,080, that is an increase of 13.1% since March 2021. The average sale price of a two storey single home is $889,721. The average sale price of a bungalow is $814,499 and the average condo is selling for $479,405.
Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 2,011 residential properties in March through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® System, compared with 2,274 in March 2021, a decrease of 12 per cent. March’s sales included 1,493 in the residential-property class, down 12 per cent from a year ago, and 518 in the condominium-property category, a decrease of 10 per cent from March 2021. Although the number of sales in March decreased from last year at this time, it was still a robust and busy start to the spring season.
It is important to have the right Real Estate Agent and Brokerage working for you. RE/MAX is the top selling Real Estate Brokerage in Ottawa. Selling more than 13,000 homes in 2021. Our biggest competitors sit at 11,380 homes sold in 2021 and all other brokerages are at 2,500 sales and below. RE/MAX Real Estate Agents have a huge advantage, being able to market their listings to an exclusive group of top producing agents. No one sells more Real Estate in Ontario than RE/MAX.
Mortgage rates also play a factor in buyers ability to purchase. Some skeptics believe that increasing mortgage rates will deter buyers from purchasing at all. The bank of Canada raised mortgage rates by .5% on April 13th, 2022, we will see in the coming months whether this plays a role in the market. Will buyers keep buying? Will there be more inventory on the market? Will Seller’s keep getting over asking offers? Nobody has a crystal ball, the future for the Ottawa Real Estate market remains unknown.
As an Ottawa REALTOR®, I hope that the market remains strong but that it trends back to a more balanced market. The only way I see this happening is if supply increases. With a balanced market, buyers can actually have a chance at buying without competing with other offers and Sellers will get a fair market price for their home. Win, Win! With the extreme bidding wars and houses selling well above asking, it is hard to give buyers direction when we don’t know what the other offers entail.
