The real estate market outlook for Ottawa for 2009.
The real estate market for Ottawa for 2009 is expected to be stable. Experts are predicting a balanced market which favours both buyers and sellers.
In 2008, although there was a Canada-wide 15% reduction in home sales, the numbers in Ottawa showed only 5% fewer sales than the previous year.
In 2008, Ottawa real estate prices increased by 7% and this is expected to increase a further 3% in 2009, making the average Ottawa home cost $292 000.
The Ottawa real estate market tends not to follow extremes as we have a high number of post-secondary graduates with healthy incomes.
Ottawa new house construction increased 5.8% from last December. The Ottawa Citizen reported that work started on 471 units this December. This is the fourth year in a row that new housing starts have showed continuous growth. However, this number is expected to decline in 2009 as Canadians are cautious about the state of the economy.
Builders in Canada say that the housing market will "cool", but we do not need to fear a U.S. style real estate market collapse which resulted from unwise lending practices.