Ottawa starved for home listings

May 2, 2018

Ottawa’s hot housing market is starved for listings, real estate agents say.
“Inventory continues to fall below normal average, but we are still seeing more sales than last year because listings are not staying on the market,” said Ralph Shaw, president of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. “Properties that are priced well are selling quickly with days on market dropping to an average of 43 days from an average of 54 days in March 2017.”
There were just 3,028 residential properties for sale at the end of February, along with 1,064 condominiums—down 21 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively, from a year earlier.
Ottawa is coming off a record year for resale housing sales in 2017, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
Ottawa agents said most sales are the product of bidding wars. One cited the recent example of a Barrhaven townhouse that received 30 offers before it finally sold at $33,000 over the $299,000 asking price.
The result of all this activity has been to push up prices in the hottest neighbourhoods to the west and east of the downtown, along the Ottawa River.
The average sale price of a single-family detached house in March in the Ottawa area was $447,561, an increase of 8 per cent over March 2017. The average price for a condominium was $275,592, an increase of 0.7 per cent from March 2017.