My last post suggested that the fall is the second busiest season of the year with the first being the spring. Fellow Ottawa realtor, Gord McCormick of Oasis Realty, disagreed and was kind enough to provide some board statistics concerning sales — he says July and August are good months too.
Now I don’t know whether these figures are for firm deals (where all conditions have been removed) or closing dates. (I called the Board; the person I spoke didn’t know either but will find out and get back to me). I’d be reluctant to try to predict any trends from only a couple of years’ statistics, but here they are and they do support Gord’s views that July and August are busy months too.
Month | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
Jan | 682 | 602 | 589 |
Feb | 1008 | 914 | 870 |
March | 1388 | 1167 | 1189 |
April | 1568 | 1573 | 1420 |
May | 1890 | 1804 | 1792 |
June | 1662 | 1594 | 1661 |
July | 1376 | 1339 | |
August | 1145 | 1219 | |
Sept | 995 | 1119 | |
Oct | 1021 | 1069 | |
Nov | 928 | 891 | |
Dec | 615 | 610 |
A couple of interesting things about these figures to note. Sales are down from two years ago which makes sense; inventory is way up. And April, May, and June are definitely the busiest months of the year.
But as even these limited statistics would tend to indicate, a properly presented, well-priced home should sell regardless of when it ‘s put on the market, even in December. Thanks, Gord!
thanks for this update, Peggy! I have done this research back at least 5 or 6 years and it is fairly consistently the same pattern. Transactions are firm “solds” as per Ottawa Real Estate Board monthly press releases for combined residential and condo unit sales (via Realtorlink) Hopefully, there may be a seller out there who will now call their REALTOR® and get their property listed now, rather than waiting for September.
Thanks again for the mention.
Gord McCormick, Broker of Record
Oasis Realty Brokerage
My pleasure! I spoke to the Board today and they said the stats are based on what we input into MLX as “sold date”. Would love to see stats based on firm dates, or closing dates as well. Thanks! Peggy