Ottawa’s November 2023 resale market was mostly “steady as she goes,” according to the Ottawa Real Estate Board’s (OREB) monthly report.
Realtors sold 724 homes through the board’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That was down a marginal 1.6 per cent from the same month last year, although also down more than 27 per cent compared to the 10-year average — a clear indication that the year-plus-long slump in the housing market is also steady as she goes.
“Sales are performing as expected with the arrival of colder months,” said board president Ken Dekker in a statement.
The only uptick in the November 2023 resale market was condos: 114 units sold, an increase of 6.4 per cent compared to last year. Realtors sold 385 single-family homes, a decrease of 2.5 per cent, and 222 townhomes, down almost one per cent.
MORE: October 2023 resales remained listless
Year-to-date sales are limp: 11,421 transactions, down almost 12 per cent from the same period last year and off more than 33 per cent from the same period in 2021, when the pandemic saw both resale and new-home sales sail through the roof as buyers, impelled by FOMO (fear of missing out) and other factors, snapped up homes like there was no tomorrow.
November 2023 resale market by the numbers
The MLS Home Price Index reports a composite benchmark price of $628,900 for homes last month, a slight gain of 1.4 per cent from November 2022.
The benchmark price for single-family homes was $708,900, up 1.6 per cent; townhomes were $492,300, virtually unchanged from last year; and condos were $424,300, up 1.2 per cent.
As was the case in October, Ottawa’s most affordable neighbourhood was Bells Corners, according to a report from Wahi, a Toronto-based real estate data firm and brokerage. The median price of a home in Bells Corners last month was $495,990, says Wahi (the company uses median price, which is calculated differently from OREB’s MLS Home Price Index). That meant a household income of $125,000 would be enough to buy a home there.
“Property in Bells Corners is more affordable than almost any city in Ontario, including Kingston, London, Toronto, Windsor, and many more,” stated the report.
Household income required to buy a home varied in other areas of Ottawa, including $150,000 in Barrhaven, Vanier and Orléans and $175,000 in Kanata.
OREB’s report showed that despite continued slow sales, new listings increased slightly in November — 2.7 per cent — compared to the same month last year.
Reflecting ho-hum sales, active listings were up almost 16 per cent over last year, according to the board, and months of inventory (the time it would take to sell inventory at the current rate of sales) grew from 3.2 months last November to 3.8 this year.
