Ottawa’s October 2023 resale market continued a months-long listless trajectory as sales transactions slipped marginally, prices barely grew from a year ago and months on market increased only slightly, according to the Ottawa Real Estate Board.
Realtors sold just 816 homes last month though the board’s Multiple Listing Service. That number was down almost 31 per cent from the 10-year average and more than 56 per cent from the frantic market of October 2020.
More than half of the homes sold last month were single-family dwellings, followed by townhomes and condos. Townhome transactions were at their lowest level for the month since 2014 and single-family homes were at the second lowest level since the same year. Condos fared better than the other two housing types, although they still had their fourth lowest year since 2014 for sales transactions.
“Life is expensive these days, which likely has both buyers and sellers staying put,” said board president Ken Dekker in a statement. “We’re seeing a slow decline in sales activity but it’s minimal and not unexpected for this time of year.”
MORE: September resales show a balanced market
Prices flat, underbidding grows, inventory up
The benchmark price for a single-family home in October was $721,600, up 2.2 per cent on a year-over-year basis. The benchmark price for a townhouse was $501,100, nearly unchanged, up a scant one per cent compared to a year earlier, and the condos price was $424,100, unchanged from levels a year ago.
For the year to date, average single-family home prices are down six per cent, townhomes 1.7 per cent and condos 1.4 per cent.
“Prices are adjusting and coming down, which is also indicative of the types of homes that are selling — apartments seeing the largest increase in sales activity over last October,” said Dekker.
Underbidding characterized almost the entire Ottawa resale market last month, according to a report from real estate data firm Wahi. The report, which compares median list and sold prices for all homes, found Dunrobin had the highest rate of underbidding at eight per cent. Of the 66 neighbourhoods in October’s report, only Riverside Park saw significant overbidding at 11 per cent while Laurentian came in at less than one per cent.
Like prices, inventory levels favour buyers over sellers. New listings last month grew 6.6 per cent, which was higher than both the five- and 10-year averages. Months of inventory — the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity — was also up, although only slightly, from the same time last year, growing from 3.1 to 3.8 months.
