Every month we take a closer look and drill down the sales data of Ottawa condos from the previous month. Here are the statistics for July 2022 in the top five "downtown" areas - Centretown, Byward Market and Sandy Hill, Little Italy (which includes Lebreton Flats), Hintonburg, and Westboro. The information will be specific to apartment-style condominiums, and only what sold through the MLS. Also important to note that DOM (Day's On Market) is calculated to include the conditional period, which in Ottawa is roughly 14 days for almost every single transaction.
This month, Ottawa real estate agents sold 1110 residential properties. This is down 35% from this month last year, when agents sold 1718. 840 of these were residential properties (a 36% decrease) and 270 were condos (a 34% decrease). This is also greatly below the 5 year average of 1691 properties sold in the month of June.
Penny Torontow explains that this is a major slowing of our real estate market. Buyers are even less motivated to buy than the usual ‘summer lull’ we see in a typical year. She explains that the interest rate hikes as well as other factors are contributing to buyers wanting to ‘wait and see.’ Torontow explains this isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, because as more homes hit the market and less buyers are motivated to buy, we’re getting closer to a balanced market.
Listings added to the market are very regular compared to the 5 year average and only a slight decrease from last July, when the market was booming. This has boosted our inventory of residential properties to 2.9 months and condos to 2.5 months. We’re moving quickly towards a balanced market, which would mean 4 months of inventory.
Average prices are still increasing, 1% from last year in condominiums and 5% from last year in residential homes. This is a significantly slower increase than previous years though, where we were seeing double digit percentage increases year over year.
Sellers must prepare to be more patient as days on market return to typical lengths. Buyers have more choice and less pressure to buy. Because of this, they may be touring more houses and taking more time to make their decisions. Rising costs of just about everything also means more buyers are taking a breath to evaluate their finances in this changing world before making offers.
In contrast, rentals are up significantly, with Ottawa agents renting out 3528 properties year to date, compared to 2706 the previous year.
Important to note is that these statistics can only be as accurate as there are condos sold in Ottawa. The more condos sold in an area, the more accurate the averages will be.
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