Average House Sale Prices in Ottawa up 35%

Ottawa’s robust residential real estate market in April saw the number of transactions up more than 30% above average for the month, the Ottawa Real Estate Board reports.

With inventory continuing to be lower than usual, the market also saw continued increases in average sale prices for residential units and condos.

The average sale price so far in 2021 is up by 35% for residential properties and 20% for condo units compared with the same period in 2020, the Board says.

Members of the Board sold 2,402 residential properties in April of 2021. The five-year average for April sales is 1,830.

Deb Wright, President of the Ottawa Board, says April of 2021 had actually been poised to be the strongest on record, with more than 3,200 new property listings added to the inventory early in the month.

Even with the province’s stricter lockdown announcement in the middle of the month, she said, “the number of transactions managed to surpass unit sales recorded in previous Aprils, and we presume the figures would have been even higher in different circumstances.”

The average sale price for a condominium unit in Ottawa from January to April, at $418,792, is up 20% over the price for the same period last year.

The average sale price for a residential property for those months in 2021 was $734,682. That’s up 35% from the same period in 2020, the Board reported.

Those price increases are bigger than usual for the Ottawa market, but stem from a lack of inventory that we have seen in Ottawa and in other Canadian cities for much of the past year.

“These accelerated price increases boil down to a lack of supply and will continue to be a challenge for buyers until more inventory becomes available,” Deb Wright said.

“Certainly, April’s substantial increase in new listings, 19% higher than the five-year listing average and over 400 units more than the previous month, gives us cautious optimism. When the stay-at-home order concludes, we hope that pent-up supply will bring some much-needed stock to the resale market.”

The Ottawa Board cautions, as it always does, that the average sale price for a given month or months can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. As with any city, sale prices in Ottawa vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

If you’re considering selling or buying property in the Ottawa area, I’d love to chat with you about your plans and tell you more about conditions in your part of the city.

With more than 30 years of experience as a Realtor in the Ottawa area, I have helped clients buy and sell in a wide range of market conditions, and I know the city’s neighbourhoods well.

You can read more about me and view my listings on my site, at www.nancybenson.com.

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The site includes information on financing cottages and vacation properties, and listings of rural properties throughout our region and central Ontario.

Feel free to give me a call, at 613-747-4747.