The average home price in Ottawa is expected to fall two per cent in the final months of the year, a new report by Re/Max Canada says.
According to the national real estate brokerage, the average price of a residential property in the capital was $550,933.75 at the end of August, down 1.1 per cent from a year earlier. The number of transactions in the first eight months of 2022 also declined 10.9 per cent year-over-year to just over 16,000.
Ottawa mirrors Re/Max’s national forecast, which is projecting the national average home sale price in Canada will fall 2.2 per cent in the final months of the year.
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The network of real estate brokers and agents says the moderation in the market for the September-to-December period comes amid rising interest rates, record inflation and broader global and economic uncertainties.
Mortgage rates have risen sharply this year, raising the cost of borrowing for potential buyers.
Re/Max Canada president Christopher Alexander says many markets are experiencing softer sales given recent interest rate hikes, providing some reprieve from the unprecedented demand and unsustainable price increases across Canada through 2021 and in early 2022.
However, Alexander says the current lull in the market is only temporary and until housing supply increases, these boom and bust cycles will likely be a recurring event.
The Re/Max report follows a move by the Canadian Real Estate Association earlier this month to cut its forecast for home sales this year and lower its expectations for price growth.
In Ottawa, resale home transactions have fallen for six straight months as rising interest rates and soaring prices have combined to slam the brakes on steady sales growth seen earlier in the pandemic.
“The lightning speed at which homes were selling at the start of 2022 is a thing of the past,” OREB president Penny Torontow said in a news release in early September.
– With additional reporting from OBJ staff
