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The Shift In Selling Price Ranges In Ottawa

# of Sales by Price Range in Ottawa

 

Note: the chart above compares sales for January through May for each year, not the entire year.

Busy, busy, busy: the Ottawa real estate market has been busy this year.

Of course, it started getting very busy a couple of years ago. Then it slowed right down in March and April of 2020 as the covid-19 pandemic lock-downs started, crept up again during the summer, and became a wild rush in the fall and winter.

The chart with the “All Prices” shows how hard the lock-downs hit the real estate market in 2020. It looks like a huge jump in the number of sales from 2020 to 2021. But 2021 sales are probably not that much higher than the continuation of the increase from 2018 to 2019 would suggest if 2020 wasn’t there (and even 2019 had low increase in sales).

What is more significant is the shift in the price ranges where sales are happening.

Understandably, prices for homes basically keep rising. But only the numbers for the $400-$500,000 ranges are relatively close. Prices below that range had dramatic drops in both 2020 and 2021, and prices above show significant jumps in 2021.

Many factors affect this shift, and it’s difficult to determine how much each factor influences the numbers.
Interest rates remain low. There’s an increase in savings due to delayed travel, no restaurants, and no live gatherings.

Working-from-home is playing a big role too. People need more space for kids to connect to online schools and adults to remote work and have concurrent Zoom meetings. Some employees have been told that they’ll only need to come into the office a day or two each week even after the pandemic is under control, and some won’t need to return to the office at all. This has caused people from Toronto to sell there and bring their money to purchase in Ottawa. And they bring the money to pay considerably more for housing.

 

 

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