In the video above, Christine summarizes what’s been happening in the Ottawa Real Estate Market for the month of January 2018 and what buyers and sellers should be looking forward to and what they should be aware of.

For the month of January, 712 homes were sold in the Ottawa area. 539 of those homes were residential units and 173 were condos.

The average sale price of a residential home is now $427,487 which is a rise of 8.8% over January 2017.

There’s certainly been a great deal of activity going on in the Ottawa market, much more than the typical January and February that we’re used to. As the market started heating up, inventory seemed to get less and less. What ended up happening was an overflow of buyers from 2017 that didn’t have an opportunity to make a home purchase. So they’ve come into the 2018 housing market ready to buy.

We’re still in that same market, however, Ottawa is still considered an affordable and attainable market compares to other major Canadian cities and despite the new mortgage stress test buyers are facing.

If You’re Buying A Home

Many areas in Ottawa are still facing a shortage of homes for sale. What’s really important for anyone thinking about buying a home in Ottawa, to be really successful, is speaking with their financial institution and mortgage broker. It’s essential that buyers make sure they’re ready and are buying from a position of strength. It’s not uncommon to see buyers now putting in multiple offers on a house and the last thing you want is for a deal to fall through because of finances.

This is where having an experienced Realtor on your side can be a huge benefit to you. If you want to try to find a property and you want to bid on it you are going up against potential buyers and their Realtors. So your best bet is to hire a Realtor to help you with your buying decisions so you’ll be that much more prepared when the perfect house comes along.

What we’ve seen with a lot of our clients from all over Ottawa is that it’s not uncommon for buyers to be putting offers on 2 – 5 different homes before they’re actually able to achieve success and buying a home.

If You’re Selling A Home

From a sellers perspective, you’d think sellers would be much happier and that the market is more in their favour. But the reality is once they sell their house, where are they going to go? Unless they have a place that they know they’re going to move into, they put their home on the market and they close the deal but where are they going to go? Now they’re a buyer.

So for those selling their home in Ottawa, hiring a Realtor can help with the transition from selling your home to finding a new one and one that is definitely recommended for a smooth and stress-free transition.

Another aspect of the market that we found in looking back to January was the delicate balance of interpreting your listing price. This is something that we really recommend guidance on despite the market being in favour of sellers. If you’re listing your home for sale, you have to be careful not to underprice or overprice but rather, set a price that people can deem understandable.

We’re excited about the future of the Ottawa real estate market and if you have any questions about buying or selling in 2018, we would be happy to help you achieve your goals for living in Ottawa.