Home sales pick up in February.
March 6, 2007 - Local home sales picked up in February, signalling the start of spring shopping, with 1,032 houses being sold by the Ottawa Real Estate Board last month.
That's month's figure for Ottawa compares with 764 homes sold in January and 982 homes in February 2006.
"The average number of days a home spent on the market dropped significantly from January to February, indicating that after the usual winter lull, the Ottawa housing market is picking up again nicely," said the board president Diane Hatfield.
Ms. Hatfield noted that the pick-up is likely because housing prices remain affordable in Ottawa despite rising average sale prices.
"The average sale price of a home in Ottawa continues to rise, but the inventory of housing available below the average price remains strong, allowing plenty of opportunities for first-time buyers to enter the market and take advantage of still-low interest rates," she said.
The average price of homes sold in February rose 6.6 per cent from a year earlier to $264,566. However, most of the gains came from the increase in price of single-family homes, which saw an average rise of 8.7 per cent to $288,273. Condominium prices saw an increase of only 1.2 per cent to $188,002.
Meanwhile, the slower growth in condo prices is spurring Ottawans to buy multi-family homes, with the number of condos being sold by the Board in February 2007 rising 15.1 per cent to 244 units. Single-family home sales only picked up by 2.3 per cent compared to the same month last year, to 788 units.
© Ottawa Business Journal - 2007