May, 2008 

Ottawa Area Spring Market in Full Bloom! 

(Information compliments of Andrew Thake, TD Canada Trust Mortgage Representative)
 

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,561 residential units in April through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 1,555 in April 2007, an increase of 0.4 per cent. There were 1,086 sales in March 2008. 

“To say the spring market has arrived with a vengeance would be putting it mildly. Ottawa home buyers are keeping our members very busy these days,” said Board President Heather Skuce. “Home prices are still rising at a healthy, yet sustainable rate, compared to many major markets in Canada, which makes Ottawa a great place to buy or sell a home this spring,” she added. 

The average price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in April in the Ottawa area was $295,144, an increase of 6.5 per cent over April 2007. The Board cautions that average price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The average price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold. 

New Home Market - Ottawa’s Housing Starts Grew at a Healthy Pace in the First Quarter 

In the first quarter, total housing starts in the Ottawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) increased by 35 per cent, reaching 1170 units, compared to 869 units for the same period in 2007. In the single-detached housing segment, starts this quarter were 419 units, 17 per cent over the first three months of 2007. There has been a considerable increase in townhome and condominium apartment unit construction in the first quarter. 

In the first three months of 2008, Ottawa’s row house and condominium apartment activity grew by 35 and 94 per cent increase respectively compared to the same period in 2007. There were 13 new condominium projects which broke ground in the first quarter comprising 399 units, mostly in the downtown area. Typically townhomes and condominium apartments are more affordable than other low density housing forms and consequently are popular with new home buyers. Again this month Nepean led the region with the largest number of starts, with 56 condominium apartments,62 townhomes and 20 singledetached homes started. Kanata was positioned in the second place with 43 single-detached homes and 40 townhome starts. For the first quarter of 2008, Kanata posted the greatest increase in total starts, followed by Nepean and the former municipality of Ottawa, with 163, 69 and 46 per cent respectively 

Kanata is a well sought area by young families as it provides new dwellings at affordable prices and is still within the Ottawa CMA. Of the total number of starts for these first three months, 34 per cent were condominium apartments and 36 per cent were single-detached homes.