New home sales stay steady in July

It was steady she goes as the Ottawa housing market settled into summer, with both resale and new home sales changing little in July.

“New home sales in July were as expected,” said Patrick Meeds, who heads the new home division for industry analyst PMA Brethour Realty Group.

There were 323 new home sales for the month, up 0.9 per cent from July 2014, when 320 were sold. While that’s down 10.3 per cent from the 360 new homes sold in June, summer is typically a slower time for sales. For the year-to-date, sales are down 4.4 per cent from last year (2,328 versus 2,434).

The resale market saw the slightest of decreases in July. According to the Ottawa Real Estate Board, there were 1,436 homes sold compared with 1,440 in July 2014, a decrease of 0.3 per cent.

“Last July was the second-best on record, and this July was only four units short of that record, coming in well above the five-year average,” board president David Oikle said in a release. (The fiveyear average for July sales is 1,380.) “Overall, the Ottawa resale market has been performing quite well with no major fluctuations in units sold and average sale price.”

July’s sales included 271 condos (with an average price of $255,102, a decrease of 2.6 per cent over July 2014), and 1,165 other properties (averaging $394,889, an increase of 4.5 per cent over last year).

“We are seeing a slight increase in condominium sales this month — a positive change,” said Oikle.

Meeds also noted improvement in new condo sales, with mid- and highrise condos having their second month of above-average sales, helped by “the successful launch” of The Corners, Domicile’s condo project on Main Street next to the Oblate lands.

Housing starts, meanwhile, were trending at 4,491 units in July compared to 4,207 units in June, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month average that is adjusted each month to remove seasonal ups and downs to offer a more accurate month-tomonth comparison while projecting the starts for the year.

“Housing starts trended slightly up in July but continued on a moderating path compared to a year earlier across all dwelling types,” CMHC analyst Anne-Marie Shaker said in a release.

Looking ahead at the effect a long federal election campaign could have on the local market, Meeds said: “While federal elections tend to delay the purchase decision for some new-home buyers by a few months, we do not expect this to cause an overall decrease in sales for 2015.”