April 2023 resales saw the city return to a sellers’ market as transactions rose and inventory dropped, according to the Ottawa Real Estate Board.
Realtors sold a total of 1,488 residential properties last month through the board’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That’s down 22 per cent from the 1,876 sold in the same month last year, but also marks a substantial improvement over the average decline of 38 per cent during the first quarter of this year and the similar sluggishness that dogged the market throughout most of 2022.
The five-year average for April is 1,739 sales.
“Ottawa’s resale market is on a steady upward trajectory, narrowing the comparison gap to peak pandemic activity in 2022,” said board president Ken Decker in a statement.
The Bank of Canada’s pause on interest rate increases earlier this year may well be encouraging would-be buyers to re-enter the market after sitting it out over the past several months.
April’s sales included 1,156 non-condo properties, off 18 per cent from a year ago, and 332 condominiums, down 29 per cent from last year.
Inventory slips
Over the past few months, the inventory of resale homes has been healthy, with lots of new listings and sales still slow compared to the previous year. That made for a return to a balanced market after a strong sellers’ market throughout the pandemic.
April was a different story, with new listings down compared to last year and sales numbers growing. There’s now just a 1.9-month supply of both non-condo and condo properties compared to well over two months recently. With days on market also shrinking, “We’re back into sellers’ market territory,” says Dekker.
It was a similar situation in Toronto and Vancouver last month, as significantly increased demand put pressure on inventory and prices grew accordingly. Toronto’s home price index, which excludes the most expensive properties, rose to $1,145,700, while Vancouver’s hit $1,170,700.
Ottawa prices inch up
While we’re still not close to Toronto and Vancouver’s stratospheric levels, the average sale price for a non-condo property in Ottawa last month crept up to $747,123, a decrease of 10 per cent from 2022 but a five-per-cent increase over March 2023. Condos averaged $435,875, dropping eight per cent from a year ago but up four per cent over last month.
Year to date, non-condo prices ($718,633) are down 13 per cent and condos ($421,722) are down 10 per cent compared to last year.
“Upward pressure on sales prices continues,” said Dekker. Potentially striking fear into the hearts of those who remember the unbridled bidding wars during the height of the pandemic, he added, “multiple offer situations have returned to certain neighbourhoods.”
