Ottawa Real Estate Market - March Stats

March 2023 Market Update is out now, let's see the difference from the previous year.

So the average price of a home in March 2023 was $604,000, which is down about 14% from the same time last year. The units sold were 1,458 in the month of March this year, which is down 38% from the same time last year. And the days on market are up 188%. Today we're sitting at 36.15 days on the market.

Next we're going to go through how many new listings we saw last month, the total inventory, and the months of inventory that we have currently on the market. So total inventory, we had 2,678 homes on the market at the end of March this year; that's up about 113% for March 2022. The months of inventory are about 2.5 months, which is up 316% from March 2022, and the new listings were actually down 21%, so we saw 2,089 new listings hit the market in the month of March.

So we have to keep in mind that last March was an all-time low for inventory. We are at about 0.7 months of inventory, and that's why the increase seems like it's so much, but at 2.5 months of inventory, we're actually pretty low, and you can see that the amount of new listings hitting the market is actually less, so we are starting to see inventory shortages. We're starting to see bidding wars again, and the prices are going up.

So next, we'll take a look at the average price of a home month by month. So, like we said, the average price of a home is actually down 14% from the same time last year. In March 2022, the average home was selling for about $716,000, and today it's selling for about $604,000. However, if you take a look at the last couple months, you'll see that the market bottomed out at $560,000 in December and has come up every month since.

Next, we're going to take a look at the sold-to-ask ratio. So taking a look at the average sold-to-ask ratio, we can see a very similar trend to the average price. The average price came down by about 14%, where sellers were purposely underpricing their homes just to get a bidding war, whereas now they're pricing their homes more appropriately and the bidding wars are starting to happen because of the low inventory.

But obviously, this is only for homes that are priced correctly; homes that are priced comparable to the price of last year are sitting on the market and selling for significantly less than asking.

And so next, we're going to take a look at the average days on market.

How long is it taking homes to sell in the city of Ottawa right now? So the average home in Ottawa is taking about 36 days to sell compared to 12 days around the same time last year, and while the days on market have almost tripled, 36 days is a more normalized market. You can see that it's even come down from the peak of 47 in January.

It's actually a positive thing for both buyers and sellers because it makes the process a lot less stressful than it was at the same time last year. Buyers are able to see multiple homes and make sure they're making the right choice. And sellers are also able to have enough people through to make sure that they aren't just taking the first offer on the table and that they're getting what their home is worth.

Next, we're going to take a look at the units sold. So, as you can see here, the number of units sold in March 2022 compared to March 2023 is a huge difference.

In March 2022, we saw 2,379 homes sell, but we only saw 1,458 sell this March. This is the biggest difference that we're seeing in the market right now: the amount of homes actually selling, but if you remember, we actually had fewer homes hit the market as well, and that's why the market is still starting to heat up.

Thanks again for reading this, I hope you guys found this helpful.