Ottawa Real Estate Update - April 2025
If you’re planning on buying or selling a home in Ottawa in the coming months, 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 April 2025 market data.
Despite the continued uncertainty in the economy, and a federal election (April 28th,2025), Ottawa’s Real Estate Market continued to move forward, but with a bit of caution.
1. Months of Inventory
Months of Inventory is the number of months that it would take to sell all of the homes currently on the market at the current rate of sales if no more homes were listed for sale. Thus, it’s affected by both current inventory levels and the rate of sales for the past month.
As a Buyer, you want to see higher MOI so you have more selection and less competition so you can get a deal.
And as a Seller, you want a low MOI so your home sells quickly with competition, which can bring about higher sales prices.
Throughout April, we saw 2.52 Months of Inventory across all property types in Ottawa. This has been trending down slowly all spring, from a peak at about 3.25 in December/January, meaning that the market is moving a little quicker.
Comparing it to last year’s 2.2 months of inventory, we confirm that this year’s spring market is a bit slower than it was last year. And it’s most certainly slower than the average for the last 5 or so years when we were at or below one month of inventory.
Like most stats looking at all property types and areas of the city, it’s not super useful, so I will break it down for you. If you’re looking at a Detached home, the MOI is fairly close to that overall average, at 2.35 months. If you’re looking at a townhome property, it’s sitting at about 1.7 months, meaning homes are selling more quickly. And, if you’re looking at a condominium apartment, it’s much higher, at about 3.7 months. That is much closer to a “balanced market”.
Like most stats looking at all property types and areas of the city, it’s not super useful, so I will break it down for you.
If you’re looking at a Detached home, the MOI is fairly close to that overall average, at 2.35 months. If you’re looking at a townhome property, it’s sitting at about 1.7 months, meaning homes are selling more quickly. And, if you’re looking at a condominium apartment, it’s much higher, at about 3.7 months. That is much closer to a “balanced market”.
2. Average Sales Price
The average sale price of all properties across the City of Ottawa in April 2025 was $716k. This was up almost 3.5% from March, and up just slightly, 0.5% from what we saw in April 2024.
Again, I will break it down for the three major property types.
The average price for detached homes across the city was $932k, freehold townhomes were $629k, and condominiums were $444k.
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
The List to Sale Price Ratio is a measure of how close the asking and selling prices are. In April we saw an average ratio of 99%. This means that, on average, homes are selling for 99% of the asking price. Remember, though, that averages include those selling within days (which are more likely to sell at or above asking price), as well as those that have been on the market for many months. It also doesn’t take into account if an asking price has been lowered significantly, resulting in an ‘over asking’ sale price. Many homes start out with higher asking prices, don’t get the interest they expect, and then drop their price to a more reasonable asking price and sell. This stat only looks at the difference between that last asking price and the sale price, not what it originally had been listed at.
4. Days on Market
The next thing we’ll look at is how long it’s taking for homes to sell. That 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 29 Days on market. This has been on a steady decline since January when we were at 51 days and is slightly longer than where we were at last year, at 27 days.
Breaking it down into property types we see:
Detached homes are at 28 days. Townhomes are at an average of 25 days, and condominiums are selling in an average of 34 days, though if I break that down further, condo apartments are at 39 days while condo townhomes are at only 25 days.
5. Interest Rates
If you’re thinking about buying real estate in the near future, mortgage rates are ranging between 3.79% and about 4.75% right now. These haven’t changed too much over the past couple of months.
The Bank of Canada held their overnight lending rate last month, which guides the bank prime rates and the variable interest rates. Their next interest rate announcement is coming up in early June.
Fixed rates are affected by the 5 year Bond rates, which have actually climbed in the last couple of months due to the uncertainty in the economy from all that is going on south of the border. 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.
6. Market Trend Insights
What I’ve shared above is for the City of Ottawa boundaries. It differs slightly from what you’ll see from the Ottawa Real Estate Board, partially because they’re reporting data that includes areas outside of the City boundaries, but also because they’re obtaining their stats and data from the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The data I’ve shared shows a cautious market, but one that is still progressing.
If you’ve been watching the headlines more broadly than Ottawa, however, you may be wondering how what I’m sharing could possibly be true. The headlines across the country, and Ontario, are showing a Real Estate market that is beyond sluggish. Headlines such as this one!
I’m not going to sugarcoat it! The market is NOT good elsewhere in Ontario, especially in the greater Toronto Area. Headlines are using province-wide statistics, and the Toronto area stats really do take over, due to the population density.
But Ottawa IS different.
Our Ottawa market has proven to be more resilient throughout all of the recent uncertainty, and while it is slower than last year, and not what was expected heading into 2025, things are still cautiously moving.
Buyers are being cautious, and I believe that there are a lot of buyers sitting just on the sidelines waiting to see how things are trending before they potentially jump back in.
And when they do jump back in, everyone is going to realize fairly quickly that we’re still in a housing shortage….