Resale Market Eases off In January

Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 601 residential properties in January through the Board's Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 626 in January 2015, a decrease of four per cent. The five-year average for January sales is 618.

Residential two-storey and bungalow homes continue to have the highest concentration of buyers, with three-storey homes increasing in sales by over 50 per cent since this time last year. Two-storey condominium properties had a similar increase, showing the same amount of unit sales as one-level properties.

The average sale price of a residential-class property sold in January in the Ottawa area was $386,839, an increase of 4.6 per cent over January 2015. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $247,205, a decrease of 1.3 per cent over January 2015.

A possible explanation for the increase in residential average sale price this month over last year is that the amount of properties sold over $1 million doubled that of last year with six properties sold in January.