Home prices continued to spike in May as the number of local residential transactions skyrocketed year-over-year, the Ottawa Real Estate Board said Thursday.
The average residential-class property in the capital sold for $741,000 in May, an increase of 35 per cent over the same month a year ago, the latest figures from OREB show. Meanwhile, the average condo price jumped 24 per cent to nearly $425,000.
While prices are still rising at a hefty clip, OREB president Deb Wright said there might be signs of a slowdown on the horizon.
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Wright noted that month-over-month average price increases were not as high in April and May as they were in the first three months of the year, suggesting that could be good news for beleaguered would-be homebuyers who are finding it tough to jump into the market.
“While it is still too early to predict, this may be a sign that the rapid price acceleration we have been experiencing is easing in the market,” she said in a news release.
Wright also pointed to a tougher mortgage stress test that came into effect on Tuesday and higher interest rates as potential factors that “could eventually bring Ottawa’s real estate market to a more balanced state.”
Wright said the city’s housing inventory continued to grow last month, with 2,386 residential properties and 727 condos added to Ottawa’s resale housing stock – twice the number of new listings that entered the market in May 2020 and about 50 more than the five-year average.
Ottawa realtors sold a total of 2,296 residential properties in May, up from 1,342 a year ago and slightly above the five-year average of 2,123.
