The Ottawa Real Estate market enjoyed a spectacular month for re-sales, with June of 2016 setting a new record in properties sold, not just for June but for any single month, the Ottawa Real Estate Board has announced.
It’s not clear yet what led to the record numbers, but members of the Board sold 1,985 properties through the Multiple Listing Service system. That’s compared to the 1,691 properties that sold in June of 2015, representing an increase of 17.4 %.
It’s also well above the five-year average for the month of June, which is 1,717 properties, the Board says.
Those numbers are not just high for June. They represent “the highest sales in any month ever in the history of the Ottawa market,” says Shane Silva, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board.
“The closest comparable sales figures are from May 2009, when members sold 1,967 units sold,” Shane Silva says.
The high June sales are also unusual, as May usually has slightly higher numbers than June.
“Normally the resale market has a slight dip in units sold from May to June each year. May is routinely the peak months for units sold. However, this year, June sales increased by 3.3% over May.”
Shane Silva says it’s difficult to pinpoint any single obvious factor behind the increased numbers.
“It could be a combination of great weather and buyer activity from other markets, or it could be an anomaly. We will be closely watching the trend over the summer when sales typically slow down, as buyers turn their attention to summer activities,” he says.
Looking at sales numbers so far for 2016, the Board says year-to-date sales for 2016 are up 5.4 % over the first six months of 2015, while the year-to-date average sale price remains the same. There were about 8,300 properties on the Ottawa market in June. That was down about 11.5 % from June of 2015.
Looking more closely at the kinds of properties sold in June, the Board reports that the sales included 331 in the condominium property class and 1,654 in the residential property class.
The Board describes “condominium property” as any property, regardless of style, which is registered as a condominium, as well as properties which are co-operatives, life leases and timeshares. The residential property class refers to all other residential properties.
Looking at prices, the average sale price of a residential-class property sold in June in the Ottawa area was $399,382, or a slight decrease of 1% from the average sale price in June of 2015. The average sale price for a condo-property class was $264,913, or a decrease of 2% from the average price in 2015.
But as the Board always cautions, “average sale price information can be useful in establishing certain trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The average sale price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold.” That means that the numbers can be affected if an unusually large number of properties are sold in the higher or lower ends of the price range for a given month.
If you’re considering buying or selling in coming months, I’d love to chat with you and talk about the Ottawa market. You can reach me through my website, at nancybenson.com, or give me a call at 613-747-4747. Enjoy your July!
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