Ottawa home bidding wars!

Buyers face off over properties



Pressure to close home purchase deals rising along with mortgage rates



By Bert Hill, The Ottawa CitizenApril 9, 2010 7:57 AMBe the first to post a comment



With mortgage rates rising, Ottawa homebuyers increasingly are fighting over available properties.



"We are seeing first-time buyers taking advantage of interest rates while they are still low,'' said John Rogan, broker and manager of Royal LePage Performance Realty of Ottawa.



"Approximately three out of five listings are getting multiple offers and, on average, properties are selling above the asking price. We are in a seller's market.''



A Royal Lepage national survey said that Ottawa housing price growth kept pace with strong national markets in the first quarter.



Prices rose in a range of nine per cent and 11 per cent, depending on house classes, as strong demand and rising mortgage rates created the hot market. Standard condominiums had the largest Ottawa price increase, climbing 11.1 per cent year-over-year to $231,000 from $207,833. Two-storey houses experienced an 8.9-per-cent increase to an average of $346,833 from $318,500. Prices for detached bungalows rose year-over-year by eight per cent to $342,833 from $317,500.



"The market is very active and that creates challenges for inventory. Inventory is down 30 per cent because of the high volume of unit sales," Rogan said.



"This time last year, an average house was on the market for 46 days and now the average is down to 38 days."



Ottawa house prices kept pace with increases across Canada. The national average price of a detached bungalow in Canada rose 11 per cent to $329,209 in the first quarter year-over-year, while standard two-storey homes rose 10.3 per cent to $365,141 and standard condominiums increased 10.9 per cent to $228,963.



The Ottawa condominium market is more complicated than the Royal numbers suggest. There have been huge increases in both prices and sales volumes of condominium apartments but significantly weaker results for condominium townhouses.



The Ottawa Real Estate Board results show that apartment prices jumped 26 per cent in the first quarter as sales volumes doubled from a year ago.



By comparison, townhouse prices rose 8.6 per cent as volumes rose just 11 per cent.



Phil Soper, president and chief executive, Royal LePage Real Estate Services, said the national market is highly volatile.



"In Vancouver and Toronto, for instance, the dramatic unit sales fluctuations exhibit a significant degree of market irrationality: inordinately fearful when faced with poorer markets; and overly enthusiastic when the tables turned. Montreal is an example of a city where the market has been much more stable and homeowners there seem quite happy with the relatively slow pace of change."



Housing prices varied wildly across the country.



In Vancouver, bungalow prices surged 21.8 per cent to an average of $906,045.



In Calgary bungalow prices averaged $382,000 but the price movement ranged from two per cent to 16 per cent depending on parts of the city.



Toronto bungalow prices soared 13 per cent to $459,107 and Montreal bungalow prices rose 7.2 per cent to $249,172.