…but of course! It’s 2020.
Ottawa real estate ended this unusual year with a very strong December. Monthly sales leaped 32.4% in Dec 2020 vs the same month in 2019. While December and January are typically the two lowest sales months of the year ; the sales recorded in December of 1,002 actually outstripped April where only 913 total properties were sold. April is normally the 3rd busiest sales month (after May #1 and June #2) but the arrival of the pandemic in March really put a damper on April sales this year. Sales decreased in April 2020 by 55% vs 2019.
Price increases largest in almost 40 years:
One has to go all the way back to 1983 to find a year with larger % price increases than our market has seen this year. On a year to date basis, residential properties average selling prices averaged $582,267 up 20% vs last year and condos sold for $361,337, up 19%. In 1983, a 21.3% price jump moved the average selling price from $71,080 to $86,245.
Super low listing inventory and mortgage rates helped fuel these price increases, plus we believe there has been an increase in out of town buyers, from other major centres.
Listing inventory: the cupboard is still pretty bare:
Though the number of new listings has been increasing for a few months, the sales demand is absorbing those easily on the residential side, where the number of available properties is 59.2% lower than a year ago, suggesting there is no letup in sight for bidding wars and above average price increases, The condo market is in slightly better position for buyers, as we end the year with 26.6% more listings than we did a year ago.
Unit sales increases not staggering for total year:
With a strong 2nd half of the year, we finally recovered the big decreases in April (-55%) and May (-44%) in unit sales and ended the year with total residential unit sales up by 3% for the year, while condo sales were 1.5% lower than 2019.
What will 2021 bring?
Royal Lepage is predicting that Ottawa will continue with solid average sales increases of 11.5%, while Re/Max sees more moderate price growth of 7%, so stay tuned!
Gord McCormick, Broker of Record
Dawn Davey, Broker
613-435-4692 oasisrealty@rogers.com
www.oasisrealtyottawa.com