Another crazy month for the Ottawa real estate market. We’ve seen increases in residential and condominium sold as well as an increase in average sales prices for both.
Here are the August 2020 numbers:
- Total number of units sold: 2,017 – up 17% from 1,725 in August 2019.
- Five-year average unit sales for August: 1,668.
“August’s resale numbers were undoubtedly driven by the considerable increase in new listings that came onto the market in both July and August,” states Ottawa Real Estate Board President Deb Burgoyne. “There were at least 300 more residential and 175 more condo listings added to inventory than we saw last year at this time. In fact, we have not seen new listing numbers like this since August 2015,” she adds.
Here are the specifics for each property class:
- Number of residential-class properties sold: 1,576 – up 22% from 1,229 in August 2019.
- Average sale price of a residential-class property: $592,548 – up 22% from $462,187 in August 2019.
- Number of condominium-class properties sold: 441 – up 2% from 432 in August 2019.
- Average sale price of a condominium-class property: $383,640 – up 24% from $291,566 in August 2019.
As August used to be a month where the real estate market would quiet down, this year has seen quite the opposite. We’re seeing a load of new listings hitting the Ottawa market. So, what is bringing this on?
“The question that comes to mind is: what is propelling these new listings? Well, there are several contributing factors; there are Sellers that are ready to capitalize on their investments, there are those who may be moving into new builds or further out of the city, and let’s not forget boomers who are downsizing or perhaps moving into rentals.”
“A culmination of factors has been playing into the price increases in Ottawa’s resale market. Certainly, multiple offers are a dominant element. The reason that we have so many offers highlights the number of active buyers in the market – due to a variety of dynamics, such as record low mortgage rates, recently announced decreased debt/equity thresholds, migrating buyers coming from larger markets who may have received high returns on their home sales, etc. When you add these to the already pent-up demand from our local residents, it has created a perfect storm, so to speak.”