Solid performance in Ottawa’s June 2017 resale market residential resale market helped push the first half of 2017 well above the same period last year, according to the Ottawa Real Estate Board.
OREB reports that last month its members sold 2,162 residential properties though the Multiple Listing Service, an increase of 8.9 per cent over the same month last year. The five-year average for June is 1,818 properties.
For the first half of 2017, realtors sold a total of 9,398 residential and condo properties, up 13.5 per cent compared to the first half of 2016.
“We’re having a stellar year so far in 2017,” said OREB president-elect Ralph Shaw in a statement. He said that listings and inventory levels continued to trend downward in June, and that some pockets of the city saw multiple offers on properties.
Condominium sales, which have lagged for the past few years because of oversupply, have been particularly robust in 2017. Since January, they’ve increased over 26 per cent. Last month, they jumped more than 23 per cent compared to June, 2016.
Prices continue climbing
When it came to dollars and cents, OREB reported that the sale price of an Ottawa-area condominium averaged $289,905 in June while other homes averaged $434,502. Those prices are up 9.4 and 8.8 per cent respectively over the same month last year.
Surprisingly, Ottawa last month outpaced Toronto in price growth. Toronto, which has seen a slowdown in its real estate market since the provincial government moved in the spring to control speculative buying and expand the housing supply, registered a relatively modest 6.3 per cent growth in overall prices last month.
Year to date, Ottawa prices are up an average of 6.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2016.
High-end sales spike
Another notable trend this year: A spike in the sale of high-end properties. OREB reports the sale of 171 residential and condo properties for $1 million or more since the turn of the year. June alone saw the sale of an astounding 46 properties at $1 million or more.
In both cases, those numbers are more than double last year’s.
“It indicates that home buyers are looking beyond their basic needs to check off more boxes from their wish lists such as view, downtown location, or acreage property,” said Shaw.
OREB also reported that in June properties in the $300,000 to $399,999 range accounted for the highest proportion of homes sales, at 35.1 per cent. For condos, those in the $150,000 to $249,999 bracket represented just over half of all sales.
