Agent Blogs

In the ten years I have been helping my clients buy and sell their homes in Ottawa area I have been through the full spectrum of Buyers markets and Seller markets. The house buying/selling process can be an emotional roller coaster for many people. The added stress of a market that favours one group over another has a twist which is that there are always losers in what should be a win win transaction. This market is certainly not my favourite market to work in. Maybe I am just old fashioned but I like a market when there are two happy parties at the end of the day - not one and a half happy parties. What do I mean by that ? When the house sells in a day over the asking price some Sellers wonder did I ask enough? Buyers think did I pay too much? Wait ,there are all other losers - the buyers who wanted to buy that house enough to put an offer in writing but at the end of the day they have no house, after a few of these experiences - the spark is gone there is no excitement only stress for buyers ...........however like all markets this too shall pass.
Karen Cayer

This article (below )has been Reprinted from the Ottawa Real Estate Board
Ottawa, March 5,2010 : Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,118 residential properties in February through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 787 in February 2009, an increase of 42.1 per cent. Of those sales, 323 were in the condominium property class, while 795 were in the residential property class. The condominium property class includes any property, regardless of style (i.e. detached, semi-detached, apartment, stacked etc.) which is registered as a condominium, as well as properties which are co-operatives, life leases and timeshares. The residential property class includes all other residential properties.
“Last month’s sales were near the top of the usual range for this time of year, as opposed to February of 2009, which was the end of the brief slowdown we saw in Ottawa’s resale housing market due to global economic conditions,” said Board President Pierre de Varennes. “So far in 2010, OREB Members have sold 1,838 properties, putting us well ahead of the 1,316 properties sold in the first two months of 2009. Inventory remains low and the homes that are listed are selling quickly, keeping Ottawa in a seller’s market for the moment,” he added.
The average sale price of residential properties, including condominiums, sold in February in the Ottawa area was $317,030, an increase of 15.8 per cent over February 2009. The average sale price for a condominium-class property was $265,938, an increase of 30.3 per cent over February 2009. The average sale price of a residential-class property was $337,788, an increase of 15.6 per cent over February 2009. The Board cautions that average sale price information can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The average sale price is calculated based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold.