Real Estate

Ottawa and Surrounding Area Real Estate market discussion

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Deal Fanatic
Jan 15, 2017
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Besides not wanting to open that tiring debate of east vs west, I also found the title of the article very misleading.

If you review the pic of the map in the article, you will see that some of the districts with the lowest price movements include:

Stittsville, Munster, Richmond,
Carp, Dunrobin, Huntley, Fitzroy,
Barrhaven,

I don't believe there was any mention of Kanata at all.

Seems to me that the author was very liberal with the definition of "west".
Deal Addict
Nov 11, 2004
3503 posts
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Ottawa
Ottawa's Real Estate Marketplace ~ September 2017 Edition

During the month of August 2017, members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,538 residential properties, compared to 1,481 in 2016, an increase of 3.8% of properties sold vs the previous year.

It took an average of 72 days for properties of all types to sell in August 2017 which is 17 days faster than the average in Aug 2016 and 4 longer than the month before, July 2017.

Of these 1,538 sales, 1,179 were freehold houses, and 359 were condominiums.

The average sales price for a freehold house sold in August 2017, was $420,335 showing an increase of 7.6% over August 2016. While condominium average prices dropped 0.4% from last year to $270,768.

2,191 new properties were listed for sale in Aug, bringing the total number of properties for sale to 5,691 a decrease of 23.1% from Aug of last year.
Hello
Deal Fanatic
Jan 15, 2017
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Thanks for the update @ilusa. Good news overhaul, yet taking an average of 72 days to sell still seems like a long time to me. I noticed that it has declined from last year. Fingers crossed that it will continue to decline.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
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If anyone is in the market, there's a detached bungalow that needs work in the South End of the city that came on the market for $200k. PM me if you want details.
Deal Addict
Nov 11, 2004
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voodoo22 wrote: 72 days isn't that long when you factor in the time lag between agreeing to the sale and the time to take possession, which often spans 2 months.
Is that what that means?

Say a house sold with in 2 days of being listed... It has the usual 2 months possession date.. This would mean 62 days?
Hello
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
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ilusa wrote: Is that what that means?

Say a house sold with in 2 days of being listed... It has the usual 2 months possession date.. This would mean 62 days?
I believe the 62 days is the number of between the date the house is listed on the MLS system and the date that it is marked as sold. It does not have anything to do with date of possession (which is often 1 or 2 months but could certainly be 6 months or more).
Deal Guru
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Jun 28, 2003
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A family member is visiting and would like to check out a few properties so I took her on a tour of 4 houses today with the assistance of an agent: 2 properties near Carleton University and 2 bungalows in Beacon Hill North. Some personal observations on my part

- The properties near Carleton University look like they could cash flow but there will be some work involved.

- The bungalows in Beacon Hill North are nice and close to schools and highways but we are not sure if they will cash flow, depending if we are going to rent by the rooms or if we are going to rent the entire house to a family.

- Some of these properties have been on the market for a while and prices have come down accordingly.
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Jul 4, 2004
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canabiz wrote: A family member is visiting and would like to check out a few properties so I took her on a tour of 4 houses today with the assistance of an agent: 2 properties near Carleton University and 2 bungalows in Beacon Hill North. Some personal observations on my part

- The properties near Carleton University look like they could cash flow but there will be some work involved.

- The bungalows in Beacon Hill North are nice and close to schools and highways but we are not sure if they will cash flow, depending if we are going to rent by the rooms or if we are going to rent the entire house to a family.

- Some of these properties have been on the market for a while and prices have come down accordingly.
I think as a rental, you'd do better near Carleton where you'll always have students and you'll likely be able to rent rooms individually pretty easily but you'd be dealing mostly with students which is likely more work.

Personally, I really like the BeaconHill area because of the location (proximity to downtown) and property sizes (I actually live there) but I don't think rentals (particularly detached homes) do very well. I think you could probably rent out one room to supplement income but I think it would be hard to have enough demand to rent multiple rooms and deal with turnover. As far as renting the whole house, I don't think you'd do cash positive with a detached home in that area (I think you can rent large singles (that probably sell for $500k) for around $2500/month so it limits your income potential). On the other hand, you can find condo / townhomes for under $200k (Loyola / Bethamy / etc) so you might be able to do better with those (I've never really looked at the numbers). Part of the reason is that there's a lot more demand in rentals for $1200-2000/month (or whatever the prices are) than there is for $2500+/month.
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Jun 28, 2003
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michelb wrote: I think as a rental, you'd do better near Carleton where you'll always have students and you'll likely be able to rent rooms individually pretty easily but you'd be dealing mostly with students which is likely more work.

Personally, I really like the BeaconHill area because of the location (proximity to downtown) and property sizes (I actually live there) but I don't think rentals (particularly detached homes) do very well. I think you could probably rent out one room to supplement income but I think it would be hard to have enough demand to rent multiple rooms and deal with turnover. As far as renting the whole house, I don't think you'd do cash positive with a detached home in that area (I think you can rent large singles (that probably sell for $500k) for around $2500/month so it limits your income potential). On the other hand, you can find condo / townhomes for under $200k (Loyola / Bethamy / etc) so you might be able to do better with those (I've never really looked at the numbers). Part of the reason is that there's a lot more demand in rentals for $1200-2000/month (or whatever the prices are) than there is for $2500+/month.
Thanks for the input. I asked the agent to show me properties around the Beacon Hill area because a previous poster (I believe William W) mentioned it is desirable due to close proximity to highway and good schools (Colonel By Secondary School with the International Baccalaureate Program)

I may want to add the family member wants to live on the main floor while renting out the basement units for cash flow so a bungalow (or a multiplex) is the preferred choice. She also has a budget of about $450K so a bungalow is probably a more realistic option vs. a duplex/triplex.

The agent also recommends a number of bungalows in the St. Claire Gardens area (near the Nepean Sportsplex) in the west end and the Fisher/Baseline area (behind Lone Star). Both neighbourhoods have abundance of bungalows, are fairly close to schools (Algonquin and Carleton) and accessible to transit so we will have to crunch some numbers and see what works...
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Jun 28, 2003
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Guys, i already created a thread in the Personal Finance forum but I thought I would cross-post here in case you guys don't venture out of this thread and maybe able to help

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My sister, who is here on a visitor's visa to look after my mom while she is undergoing cancer treatment, is interested in buying a property here in Ottawa.

She has a number of properties in Vietnam that she wants to sell and transfer the $ over here to buy a property. I helped her open a RBC saving account but her banker in Vietnam told her she can't wire the $ over, it simply doesn't work due to strict rules and regulations on the Vietnamese side.

I also tried to help her open a HSBC bank account here, seeing HSBC already has a presence in Vietnam but there are problems. A) HSBC banks in Vietnam do not interact with HSBC banks here in Canada and vice versa and B) HSBC Canada does not allow foreigners on visitor's visa to open bank accounts.

Were you aware of people transferring large sum of $ from overseas to Canada and if so, do you have any suggestions what we could/should do?
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
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voodoo22 wrote: I don't know, but that's what I would assume, because the sale can easily fall apart at anytime between the final offer being accepted, the property being marked sold and then possession actually changing hands. I could be wrong, but a 72 day average seems too high to only take you from listing to the property getting past the home inspection and then sold sign posting stage. 72 days is about right for an average in my mind if you consider about 2 months to take possession, 1 week to do home inspection etc. That puts the house on the market for about a week.
As mentioned earlier, the OREB refers as time to sell (or days on the market) as the number of days between when it's listed and when the offer is accepted and the conditions are waved (i.e. if the seller accepts a conditional offer (e.g. inspection and financing) the day it's listed but there's another 10 days on top for the conditions, the number of days will be 10 even though technically, it was conditionally sold the day it was listed). The board also tracks "Closing Date" which is when the property actually changes hands (what was referred to as "2 months later).
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Deal Fanatic
Jan 15, 2017
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Stopped into EQ Home's Pathways Grand Opening today. Just a few (around 4) lots of each size released. It is going to be a large subdivision once it is finished. Prices seem to be higher than any other EQ community, which surprised me. Opening day bonus for the first 5 purchasers was $15,000 off list and $15,000 Design Centre bonus off bungalows and single family homes. Was told that building won't commence until summer of 2018 so first closings will be late 2018, early 2019. Not idea closings for some.
Deal Addict
Nov 26, 2004
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canabiz wrote: Thanks for the input. I asked the agent to show me properties around the Beacon Hill area because a previous poster (I believe William W) mentioned it is desirable due to close proximity to highway and good schools (Colonel By Secondary School with the International Baccalaureate Program)

I may want to add the family member wants to live on the main floor while renting out the basement units for cash flow so a bungalow (or a multiplex) is the preferred choice. She also has a budget of about $450K so a bungalow is probably a more realistic option vs. a duplex/triplex.

The agent also recommends a number of bungalows in the St. Claire Gardens area (near the Nepean Sportsplex) in the west end and the Fisher/Baseline area (behind Lone Star). Both neighbourhoods have abundance of bungalows, are fairly close to schools (Algonquin and Carleton) and accessible to transit so we will have to crunch some numbers and see what works...
Just curious, have you look at the Elmvale and Riverview area?

They are close to the general hospital and the Cancer treatment centre. Also, in terms of rental, there is always opportunities to rent long term to medical or nursing students, or Airbnb to out of town patients and their families who may be receiving treatments at CHEO or the General.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
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voodoo22 wrote: Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it because I'm only looking at the market in Ottawa from a market which is much hotter I suppose and didn't see this past reference. I've never had a house on the market anywhere near 72 days unless closing date was also included, so I didn't think it could be this long. Now I know it is.
It totally depends on the area but that's the average (in fact I think the actual number is higher; the "days on market" is from when it's listed to when it's sold but something many agents do if it doesn't sell is cancel the listing and then re-enter it in the system and then it shows up as a new listing (or if the seller changes agents or goes FSBO to agent, etc). The board tracks this "true days on market" (actually they track it as "complete days on market" (CDOM) but I don't think the provided "days on market" statistic reflects that; I think the "published" "days on market" is from the listing time to sale time for one listing (i.e. if it's FSBO for 3 months and then agent listed for 1 week and sells, I think the "days on market" for the sale will show up as 7).

Here's an example for Brittania right now. A few have sold fast but there are a lot of actives and long running listings (hopefully this formats okay - last column is days on market, next to ML# there's a "A' (active) or 'CS' (conditionally sold) or "S" (sold), etc).

(fixing up data ...)

ML# St D/N Address List Price List Date Sold Date Type S Type Style Type CDOM
1078633 A 6101 88 SCRIVENS ST $399,900 2017-09-12 RES RES DETACH BUNGLOW 5
1078616 A 6204 2342 REMBRANDT RD $899,000 2017-09-13 RES RES DETACH 2STOREY 4
1078557 A 6203 2577 HOPKINS RD $374,900 2017-09-13 RES RES DETACH BUNGLOW 4
1078517 A 6202 2986 RICHMOND RD $375,000 2017-09-13 RES CON SEMIDET 3STOREY 122
1077898 A 6203 2554 CARLING AVE $399,900 2017-09-06 LOT LOT 65
1077773 A 6203 865 TAVISTOCK RD $419,900 2017-09-06 RES RES DETACH BUNGLOW 11
1077756 A 6102 265 POULIN AVE #209 $1,100 2017-09-06 RES RNT APT 1LEVEL 146
1077664 S 6203 2729 MONCTON RD $419,900 2017-09-06 2017-09-14 RES RES DETACH 1HLFSTY 8
1077643 A 6102 287 ZEPHYR AVE $349,000 2017-09-06 LOT LOT 11
1077613 R 6203 811 CONNAUGHT AVE #9 $1,300 2017-09-05 2017-09-15 RES RNT ROW 2STOREY 10
1077608 A 6101 3029 CARLING AVE $1,995,000 2017-09-04 ICI OFFICE 0
1077200 A 6203 851 ROB ROY AVE $439,900 2017-09-01 RES RES SEMIDET SPLIT 62
1077159 A 6102 265 POULIN AVE #1803 $174,900 2017-09-01 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 16
1077098 CS 6202 49 SPLINTER CRES $340,000 2017-08-31 RES RES SEMIDET 2STOREY 17
1077083 A 6201 2850 CARLING AVE #501 $249,900 2017-08-29 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 198
1077067 A 6202 1025 GRENON AVE #227 $164,900 2017-09-01 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 166
1077050 A 6103 240 LINCOLN HEIGHTS RD $560,000 2017-09-07 RES RES DETACH 2STOREY 10
1075999 A 6102 2660 REGINA ST $600,000 2017-08-30 MUL MUL TRIPLEX 121
1075800 A 6101 12 OAKLEY AVE #B $379,900 2017-09-01 RES RES ROW 3STOREY 16
1075745 A 6202 1025 GRENON AVE #113 $184,900 2017-08-29 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 116
1075683 S 6102 415 GREENVIEW AVE #1508 $229,000 2017-08-29 2017-09-04 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 6
1075410 R 6201 2871 RICHMOND RD #510 $1,350 2017-09-01 2017-09-15 RES RNT APT 1LEVEL 14
1075338 A 6202 1000 WATSON ST $432,000 2017-08-25 RES RES DETACH HIRANCH 23
1075317 CS 6201 2871 RICHMOND RD #110 $214,900 2017-08-23 RES CON APT OTHER 25
1075122 S 6102 70 BRITANNIA RD $439,000 2017-08-24 2017-08-30 RES RES SEMIDET BUNGLOW 6
1075020 A 6202 1025 GRENON AVE #930 $194,900 2017-08-22 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 26
1075003 A 6101 20 OAKLEY AVE $409,900 2017-08-22 RES RES ROW 3STOREY 26
1074996 S 6201 819 VICK AVE $379,900 2017-08-23 2017-09-02 RES RES DETACH BUNGLOW 10
1074884 A 6102 265 POULIN AVE #310 $189,900 2017-08-24 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 24
1074874 A 6102 265 POULIN AVE #208 $199,900 2017-08-22 RES CON APT 1LEVEL 137
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
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voodoo22 wrote: That's great information! Where do you find that? It could be useful to us when we move to Ottawa.
It's data that's only available to agents (or their husbands ;) ). Any agent should be able to get it for you. It would probably be much more useful to focus only on the areas you are interested in (e.g. I live in Beacon Hill where there's quite a wide price range, the homes are older and the area isn't that much in demand so some listings do stay for much longer (e.g. 1+ mil (which is still quite expensive in Ottawa) tend to take longer to sell, older homes that have been renovated typically sell quickly but original ones tend to not be as popular unless they are priced well, etc). Other areas (e.g. Barrhaven) appear to go quite fast still. I actually meant to do a search for Kanata but I couldn't remember the neighborhood code and was too lazy to search for it so just used Brittania above).

If you don't have an agent, feel free to pm me, If you are interested in getting details on listings, you can provide as little or as much details on price / area / nb beds / garage / etc and you can get setup for instant emails whenever something comes on the market or sells. Obviously, if you are very open (e.g. single detached under $650k anywhere in the city), you'll get tons of listings while if you are very specific (e.g. only bungalows with 3+ beds, 3+ baths, 2+ car garage on a specific street), you won't get nearly as many hits.

Mike
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Dec 27, 2009
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voodoo22 wrote: That's great information! Where do you find that? It could be useful to us when we move to Ottawa.
You will LOVE Ottawa. I'm from Victoria and never going back. Ottawa is much like Victoria in many ways (both beautiful cities, government towns, etc), but Ottawa has so much more to do, such better real estate (affordable), so many parks and greenspace, and way more biking trails. Better pay, cheaper homes. My husband and I both fell in love with Ottawa and never looked back.

You could never do everything there is to do here. We have seen so many concerts since moving here it is ridiculous (either in Ottawa or in some of the surrounding areas, even across the border). I was curious last year and decided to google drive-in movie theatres and found out that there are still drive-in movies here. So fun. The drive-in in Victoria closed when they built Tillicum Mall on the site.

It seems every time I look for something, they have it here in Ottawa (or close).
Deal Guru
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Jun 28, 2003
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William W wrote: Just curious, have you look at the Elmvale and Riverview area?

They are close to the general hospital and the Cancer treatment centre. Also, in terms of rental, there is always opportunities to rent long term to medical or nursing students, or Airbnb to out of town patients and their families who may be receiving treatments at CHEO or the General.
Thanks for the tip. I have had my eyes set on that area for a while and we did check out a property there yesterday. Nice place, need some minor work (new floor, some basement renos etc). The agent told me 3 interested buyers already submitted an offer so I suppose this one will be sold quickly.

We also checked out 4 properties around the Algonquin College area. Big lot (they are all either bungalows or split-level) and around the $400K - $425K mark. My sister is interested in 1 of them and will come back today for a second look.
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Jun 28, 2003
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@William, the agent we worked with confirmed that house in Elmvale Acres sold firm today for $20K over asking price.
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Nov 26, 2004
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canabiz wrote: @William, the agent we worked with confirmed that house in Elmvale Acres sold firm today for $20K over asking price.
Thanks for the update. I think because of its proximity to downtown and the hospitals, that area is fairly popular, and well priced one do sell quickly. The only uncertainty about the Elmvale area is the redevelopment of the Elmvale Acre Mall and how it will impact the surrounding neighbourhood.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/el ... -1.4179633

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