The ringing in of the new year did not bring good news to the real estate market in the Ottawa Valley as the trend of declining sales that dragged down the number of sales in 2022 continued in January with only 54 units sold in the first month of the year.
According to the newest report by the Renfrew County Real Estate Board, the 54 sales represented a decline of 48.1 per cent from January 2022. To put that number into perspective, home sales were 32 percent below the five-year average and 23.6 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of January.
One notable change from 2023 is in relation to the average sale price of a home actually declined in value compared to the numbers that were listed in 2022. The average price of homes sold in January 2023 was $421,111, down 14.2 per cent from January 2022.
This drop represents the first time in 13 months that a person selling a home in the Ottawa Valley did not see a significant profit in their final numbers. The dollar value of all home sales in January 2023 was $22.7 million, falling by 55.4 per cent from the same month in 2022.
Once again the Ottawa Valley went against the trend in terms of national real estate sales. National home sales declined by only three percent month-over-month in January compared to the 48.1 per cent registered.
Home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems edged back down three percent between December 2022 and January 2023, giving back all of December’s small gains and rejoining the mild downward trend observed since last summer.
Mild is definitely not a word to describe the conditions in the Ottawa Valley. The number of new listings was down by 10.5 per cent, or in real terms, 11 listings from January 2022. There were 94 new residential listings in January 2023.
This was the lowest number of new listings added in the month of January in more than three decades.
Comparatively, the actual number of national transactions in January 2023 came in 37 per cent below the second-best January ever in 2022. One trend that was similar to the national average were the January 2023 sales figure as the lowest for that month since 2009.
The stock and availability of new homes for sale is also down considerably making the choice of purchasing a home much harder for buyers. Not only are consumers still adjusting to the realities of limited supply, the average mortgage rate set by the Bank of Canada.
According to research from investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), with interest rates more than doubling in a year, many Canadians no longer qualify for pricier mortgages. Lenders are required to stress test borrowers to determine whether they can sustain payments at higher interest rates. That pressure is weighing on home buying.
Economists broadly expect that the Bank of Canada will hold off on rate cuts until the end of 2023 at the earliest, suggesting that mortgage headwinds won’t ease until next year, according to KBW analyst Mike Rizvanovic.
All these factors, combined with the newest January numbers, paint a continuation of bleak numbers for the Ottawa Valley. This is true in the area of new listings. They were 20.5 percent below the five-year average and 42.1 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of January.
Despite all the doom and gloom, there was a bit of good news contained in the most recent report. Active residential listings numbered 219 units on the market at the end of January, more than double the levels from a year earlier, jumping 133 per cent from the end of January 2022.
Active listings were 24.1 per cent below the five-year average and 59.2 per cent below the 10-year average for the month of January.
Months of inventory numbered 4.1 at the end of January 2023, up from the 0.9 months recorded at the end of January 2022 and below the long-run average of 8.5 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
