Resale buyers brave the February freeze

 

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 853 residential properties in February through the Board's Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 868 in February 2014, a decrease of 1.7 per cent. The five-year average for February sales is 914.

 

"Even though we had one of the coldest months on record, resales for the month of February are only slightly down from last year," says President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board, David Oikle. "Looking at residential properties alone, 13 more properties were sold this February over last February - a 1.9 per cent increase; while the condo market on the other hand, has been a little slower to gain momentum. That being said, both residential and condo sales are up a total of 226 combined units since January and there are a total of 6,519 residential listings going into March - both telling signs that the spring market is fast approaching."

 

February's sales included 168 in the condominium property class, and 685 in the residential property class. The condominium property class includes any property, regardless of style (i.e. detached, semi-detached, apartment, townhouse, etc.), which is registered as a condominium, as well as properties which are co-operatives, life leases and timeshares. The residential property class includes all other residential properties.

 

The average sale price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in February in the Ottawa area was $358,206, an increase of 1.3 per cent over February 2014. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $267,880, an increase of 3.8 per cent over February 2014. The average sale price of a residential-class property was $380,358, a decrease of 0.3 per cent over February 2014. While average sale price information can be useful in establishing trends over time, it should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value, because the average sale price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold.

 

"The hottest segments of our market in February were sales between $300,000 to $400,000, followed by the $200,000 to $300,000 range and $400,000 to $500,000 range," says Oikle. "These price ranges continue to have the highest concentration of properties sold, while residential two-storey homes and bungalows continue to have the highest concentration of buyers. In addition to residential and condominium sales, OREB members assisted clients with renting 366 properties since the beginning of the year."

 

This information provided by the Ottawa Real Estate Board, March 4th, 2015