New home construction, resale housing volume down.
April 8, 2005 - The slowdown in Ottawa's housing market is showing up in both the number of new homes being built and the number of resale homes changing hands.
Canada Mortgage and Housing says the number of housing starts so far this year is down 36 per cent compared to the first three months of 2004. And real estate agents are also feeling the pinch, with the Ottawa Real Estate Board reporting the number or homes sold so far in 2005 is down 8.6 per cent to 2,696.
Homebuilders are off to a particularly slow start, with only 821 starts recorded so far in 2005. Last month, with just 194 starts, posted the fewest March starts in seven years.
"CMHC expects residential construction levels to slow this year, but still believes demand for housing is buoyant considering the number of homes sold in the resale market is average for this time of year", noted
CMHC housing analyst Christian Douchant. "The higher number of resale homes listed for sale continues to offer more choice to consumers and therefore reducing the need to build more homes."
Both single-family and multi-family construction declined in March. In particular, apartment and townhouse construction continues to languish.
The steepest overall declines so far this year have been in the former city of Ottawa and the former municipalities of Gloucester and Kanata. Only five new homes were started in the old city of Ottawa in March.
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Real Estate Board says its members sold 1,108 homes in March, compared to 921 in February. However, the March sales figures were 19 per cent below 2004 levels.
"There were 2,326 new listings last month which resulted in an increase in the inventory of homes available for sale," said Board president Jeff Greenberg. "The increase in inventory and the number of sales in
March indicates the Ottawa market is still balanced."
Mr. Greenberg says the average time for a home to sell remains at slightly over 40 days. The average price of residential properties sold in March in the Ottawa area was $247,244, an increase of five percent over March of last year.
© Copyright Ottawa Business Journal 2005