Ottawa, January 6, 2010 - Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 689 residential properties in December compared with 467 in December 2008, an increase of 47.5%. This brings the total number of residential properties sold through the MLS® system in 2009 to 14,742, up 7.4% from 2008 and setting a new record. The previous record of 14,565 sales was set in 2007. The average price for all of 2009 was $303,888, an increase of 4.9 per cent over 2008. “Ottawa’s housing market felt the chill of the global financial crisis last winter, but sales warmed up even before the spring weather arrived, and over the course of the year Ottawa had five record-breaking months of sales. Listing inventory was at a low level throughout 2009, which led to many multiple-offer situations,” said Board President Pierre de Varennes. “Ottawa’s housing market bounced back very strongly from its brief downturn, and we ended the year ahead of the previous annual sales record, which certainly no one expected back in January,” he added. In December 2009, the average sale price for a condominium-class property was $246,062, an increase of 17.9% over December 2008, and the average sale price of a residential-class property was $330,471, an increase of 12.8% over December 2008. |