Ottawa housing prices continue to climb as 2021 draws to a close. It’s a trend real estate experts expect to continue in 2022.
The Ottawa Real Estate Board said that November’s average sale price for a condo was $432,099, while the typical residential-class home sold for $716,922. Both represented increases of 19 per cent over average sale prices in November 2020.
Though those figures represent significant jumps year-over-year, OREB President Debra Wright says that the month-to-month prices from October to November were relatively steady in the residential market and up seven percent for condos.
“This is a far better situation than the monthly price escalations we had seen in the first quarter of 2021,” Wright said in a statement. “However, there is no question that supply constraints will continue to place upward pressure on prices until that is remedied.”
RE/MAX said in its 2022 Canadian housing market outlook last week that Ottawa average home price is expected to rise a further five per cent next year. That’s below estimates for other large markets in Ontario, such as Mississauga (14 per cent), Toronto (10 per cent) and Brampton (eight per cent).
In Ottawa as well as those other cities, RE/MAX said home prices could feel pressure as increased immigration levels further constrain supply levels.
The OREB projects housing inventory in Ottawa is currently at a one-month supply, with the 1,430 units added to the market last month representing a 27 per cent drop from October and a 13 per cent decline from levels in November 2020.
While sales sit at “30 or so units over the five-year listing average, this is simply not sustainable and is taking us further away from the balanced market that will bring much-needed relief to potential buyers,” Wright said.
OREB members meanwhile sold 1,459 properties in November, a drop from the 1,605 seen in the same month last year. Sales figures were unseasonably high during this period in 2020, however, as more homes were sold in the fall because pandemic-driven lockdowns and general economic anxiety pushed demand from the usually busy spring and summer to later in the year.
November 2021’s sales volumes were still above the five-year average of 1,348 total units sold in November.
Realtors with the OREB have also gotten more involved with rentals in the past year, helping nearly 4,500 tenants find new units so far in 2021 compared with 3,120 such deals this time last year.