Ottawa Real Estate Update - May 2025
If you’re planning on buying or selling a home in Ottawa in the summer or fall of 2025, you’ll want to check out this update on what’s been going on in the Ottawa Real Estate Market. This is your update covering the May 2025 market data.
My stats cover what is going on within City of Ottawa boundaries. This will differ from what you see released by our local Real Estate board and most other Realtors with their monthly updates.
1. Months of Inventory
The first thing to consider is Months of Inventory. The months of inventory is a ratio of how many homes are on the market and how many homes have sold in the past month. So, if no more homes were listed for sale, it represents how many months it would take to sell all of the currently listed homes, given the same rate of home sales.
As a Buyer, you want to see higher MOI so you have more selection and less competition, and as a Seller, you want a low MOI so your home sells more quickly. When there are fewer homes on the market but higher demand, that puts upward pressure on prices.
In May we had 2.37 months of inventory across all properties in Ottawa. This is slightly lower than last month, which was just above 2.5 months.
Comparing it to May 2024, which was at 2.52 months, it means that this May was slightly more active than May last year.
Because city wide stats for all property types isn’t overly useful, I will break it down into the three main property categories. If you’re looking at a detached home, there were 2.17 months of inventory at the end of May. Townhomes are seeing 1.48 months of inventory, and Condo apartments are sitting at 3.95 months. This shows you that the condo market is much much slower than townhomes or detached homes at this point. It is sitting on the edge of a ‘balanced market’ which is from 4-6 months of inventory.
2. Average Sales Price
The average sale price of all properties across the City of Ottawa in May 2025 was $747k. This was up 4.3% from April, and up 7.1% from what we saw in May 2024
Again, I will break it down for the three major property types.
The average price for detached homes across the city was $938k, freehold townhomes were $631k, and condominiums, both apartments and townhomes combined, were $493k.
Always remember that Average prices are for all of those properties that have sold, so get affected by exceptionally high (or low) priced homes selling, skewing the average. They are also the stats for the entire city, so the prices differ vastly depending on which area you’re looking at. Ask your trusted Realtor for the details on your specific situation.
3. List to Sale Price Ratio
Our List to Sale Price Ratio, which is a measure of how close the asking and selling prices are, remained at 99% in April. This means that, on average, homes are selling for 99% of the asking price.
Some points to remember here, though, are that if a property drops their price or re-lists at a lower price, it’s a comparison to that final list price, not where they started out. Also, averages are for all types of sales. Some homes sell for well above asking price, and there are many that sell for well below asking price. You need to know what is going on in your specific area for the types of homes you’re looking to buy or sell. My tip is to have this discussion with your trusted Realtor.
4. Days on Market
The next thing we’ll look at is how long it’s taking for homes to sell. This is the Days on Market, and represents the time on market for those homes that have sold. City wide, we are seeing an average of 27 Days on market. Typical to a spring market, this has been on a steady decline since January when we were at 51 days. Last month we were at 29 days. Expect that this number will start to climb again once we’re getting into the summer months.
Breaking it down into property types we see detached homes are at 24 days, townhomes are at an average of 25 days, and , condo apartments are at 36 days.
5. Interest Rates
If you’re thinking about buying real estate in the near future, mortgage rates are ranging between 3.84% and about 4.65% right now. These continue to be fairly steady, though the fixed rates have gone up slightly over the last little while.
The Bank of Canada held their overnight lending rate the first week of June. This is the second consecutive hold on rates.
As always, it is absolutely essential that you talk with a mortgage broker, ideally, or your representative at your bank to find out what the rates are for you and your specific situation. I know a little about mortgages, but they are the experts!
6. Market Trend Insights
I’m happy to share that the Ottawa Real Estate board has finally been able to determine what the error was with their monthly stats. If you’ve been following along with my updates over the past while, I’ve made mention that the Board stats, which are generated by the Canadian Real Estate Association, or CREA, have been wrong. They were stating that there was a much higher level of inventory than there actually was, which was creating errors in the Months of Inventory that was being reported.
Their stats should be correct moving forward which will help everyone have a bit more clarity on what is going on. The news and print media get their information from the board’s updates, so it’s good to see them back on track. It may translate into a bit more confidence in the market now that the stats back up the fact that the Ottawa Real Estate market is continuing to chug along.
Let’s talk about the overall market now and how I foresee things trending….
Our May market was, overall, slightly quicker paced than April. 2025 has still been a slower than ‘normal’ year, but the market is definitely still moving at a decent pace. Personally, in my business, I have had the busiest spring since I’ve been a Realtor.
My tips for Buyers – the ability to spend weeks thinking about a potential purchase are gone. If you’re looking for that turn-key A+ home, or something in a particularly trendy or popular area, you’re going to have to make decisions fairly quickly and be prepared with your financing in place and your inspector ready for a visit. You will most likely still be able to have conditions, but you need to be efficient and show you’re motivated.
If you’re a Seller, my tips haven’t changed much. Do everything you can to prepare your home to make it show better than the rest. And don’t price with pie in the sky prices. Price it realistically from the start. Homes that sell quickly sell for more than those that inch their way down testing the market.