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With the April market behind us and performance being lack luster compared to last year what are your thoughts on real estate in Ottawa going into the latter half of the spring market and 2025? Do you expect further dips in prices?
Ottawa is clearly not getting hit as bad as the GTA when it comes to # of sales or price decreases but it’s not the roaring Spring many thought has not shown up.
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Nick's Response
I’m not sure that I’m seeing the lackluster spring that you are. The latest OREB press release shows an increase in April 2024 over April 2023 in both price and number of homes sold across almost all categories of home. It’s modest, but definitely not lackluster unless you were expecting Covid-market-like runaway prices. What we’re seeing right now is something more akin to Ottawa’s long-term trends, where growth in prices and volume of homes sold tends to be in the single-digit percentages year on year.
Although the GTA and other larger Canadian markets certainly have an effect on Ottawa, our city tends to be pretty different. It’s not unusual in any year to see price swings between 10 and 20% there, whereas here it’s (generally) a lot more predictable.
Anecdotally, my team is noticing a lot more of our clients (both homebuyers and homeowners) coming off of the sidelines after a very unpredictable 2023 and second half of 2022. Buyers express that they feel like the current interest rates are going to be the normal for a while, so they may as well step forward instead of timing the market.
Homeowners feel more confident this year that they are going to be able to sell their home in a timely fashion for a predictable price. It’s not universal; I met with potential Sellers yesterday who are sure that their home will sell in a week in multiple offers, and I had to give a gentle reality check with recent comparable sales, but most seem to have realistic expectations.
3 Places to Research the Ottawa Market
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OREB – The Ottawa Real Estate Board posts its stats for the previous month on the sixth or seventh of each month.
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Our YouTube – Each month Karim, Chelsea and I look at the recent sales statistics and draw three important lessons that homebuyers and homeowners can take away from current trends. Our aim is to educate you so that you can make the right decisions for you and your family.
3
CREA – The Canadian Real Estate Association’s statistics tend to be more macro than OREB’s, but they’re great for understanding broad or long-term trends affecting Canadians.
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