Ottawa 1st Quarter Real Estate Market Update

Market Update for the first quarter in Ottawa Ottawa's real estate market.

My name is Greg Hamre from The Hamre Real Estate Team RE/MAX Affiliates in Ottawa

Today we made the headlines in the paper.

Ottawa real estate market stays hot!

What's happening for the first quarter?

 We exceeded almost every month exceeded the number of listings that came on the market.

More inventory came on than ever before in real estate history and more houses were sold.

➡️ So the product that was coming in was going out.

One third of those sales, So one in three sales that happened in the first quarter of 2022 was a condominium. 

So one of the three sales was a condominium.

The average, the majority of those condominiums, 82% of those condominiums were under $500,000.

We're seeing a lot of pressure coming on that price point.

⚖ We're also seeing that the pendulum is shifting again.

Before the pandemic, 52% of Ottawa market was multi-family homes.

So condominiums, terrace homes, stacking homes and townhomes took up 52% of the market and it had the largest buyer category.

Those buyers included first-time home buyers, people downsizing, investors, people moving into the city where that price point was a lot more.

That was the largest buying pool.

COVID came along and all of a sudden, everybody wanted larger homes. 

Main floor dens came back in Vogue and they were looking for space and they didn't matter about the distance to the downtown core.

The economists are telling us that that will quickly change.

We've really witnessed that over the last 30 days where, especially in the condo price point, especially that under $500,000 and really under $750,000 there's a lot of pressure on anything priced below those price points in the downtown core.

Condominiums with an underground parking spot that 30 days ago, were in the $425K range.

30 days later, they're in the $475K range

So two-bedroom condominiums with garages we're in the upper $500K range

Lots of rentals being built cranes in the sky.

It's rental buildings being built, and it's not supporting those that want to buy a condominium.

50% of the homes were sold between $500K and $750K in the first quarter.

30% of the homes that sold in the first quarter were between $750K and $1 million.

➡️ So we're getting into detached homes newer product in desirable neighbourhoods.

And then 20% of the market was $1 million to luxury.

That is a large number when you build in the business for 20 years.

Cause I remember when there were a handful of homes that sold over a million.

The Ottawa real estate board only tracks up to $1 million. We had to do our own numbers to come up with what's over a million.

Where do we get to that number?

It's now very common in the suburbs for 4 bedroom homes.

 Start at the average price point for a four-bedroom is at a million dollars for a four-bedroom detached home.

There are a million dollars plus that would be Kanata, Barrhaven, Stittsville, Riverside South, Findlay Creek, Orleans, and Cumberland.

The average price point in Ottawa for the first quarter, uh, ended up in the $850,000 range for residential and it was $480,000 for a condominium.

No pressure relief insight. 

We just don't have enough condominiums downtown.

It's a hot part of the market right now.

You're seeing people still looking for rural and looking for luxury.

So even though the economists are saying, it's going to slow down in the rural areas and suburbs people be coming back downtown.

We're not seeing it happen yet. 

We just don't know when people will go back to work there.

❄️They are talking about a slight cool-down in Ontario.

➡️ That is not predicted to happen in Ottawa.

6️⃣ That's mainly Toronto where your average house price point is $2 million.

We're under a million for our average price point, even in the city proper.

So we're still half the price of Toronto. 

And a lot of our buyers are coming from there.

✈️It's a destination city. Ottawa is a beautiful city, but a destination city, with good paying jobs, great education.

A lot of new Canadians coming to our Universities in Ottawa and deciding to stay.

➡️So if you can pick anything up in the downtown core of auto right now for under 500,000.

✅I would do that. That's a good investment. It's a great income property, option for a rental.

✨And it's a fabulous city.