Residential Market Activity
A total of 1,010 homes were sold through the MLS® System in September, down 6.6% from September 2025. Sales edged up 0.8% from August, when 1,002 transactions were recorded. Only one of the previous 10 August-to-September periods produced an increase in sales, while the median change was a decline of 5.9%.
Looking across July through September provides a clearer view of the summer market. Sales typically ease gradually over these three months. In seven of the previous 10 years, activity declined in both August and September. This year followed a less even path, with an approximately 24% decline from July to August followed by September’s small increase.
The three-month total was 3,336 sales, down 8.2% from the same period in 2025 and the third-lowest summer total since 2016. Taken together, the results point to a softer and unusually uneven summer, with September stabilizing after August rather than signalling a broader rebound.
Sales were lower than a year earlier across all three major property types. Single-family sales declined 4.6% to 535 transactions, while townhouse sales fell 3.5% to 329. The largest decline remained in apartments, where sales fell 24.8% to 121 transactions. Apartments accounted for more than half of the net year-over-year decrease in citywide sales
Year to date, 10,288 homes have sold in Ottawa, down 6.9% from the same period in 2025. Total year-to-date dollar volume was approximately $7.2 billion, down 7.3%.
Prices and Market Balance
The average residential sale price was $685,640 in September, down 1.0% from a year earlier and nearly unchanged from August. The median sale price was $625,000, down 0.8% year over year and slightly higher than in August. Despite the volatility in sales activity, the average price remained within a range of less than 1% from July through September.
The MLS® Home Price Index recorded a composite benchmark price of $623,500, down 0.3% from September 2025 and 2.2% from August. Average and median prices can be influenced by the types of homes sold in a given month. For example, a larger share of higher-priced sales or detached homes as opposed to condos can support the average even when home values are generally softening. The HPI reduces this effect by tracking the estimated price of a representative home with consistent characteristics. Its larger decline therefore points to more underlying price softness than the average and median figures alone suggest.
September’s 2.2% monthly HPI decrease was the largest August-to-September decline in Ottawa’s series, which dates to 2005. Even after adjusting for normal seasonal patterns, the benchmark declined 1.5%, also the largest September decrease in the series. The result warrants attention, particularly alongside weaker absorption, but one month alone does not establish a sustained price trend.
There were 2,927 new listings in September, up 3.0% from a year earlier and 38.1% from August. Some increase is normal as the fall market begins, but the median August-to-September increase over the previous 10 years was 12.9%. Looking across July through September, 7,576 homes were newly listed, the highest total for those three months since 2016. Over the same period, sales recorded their third-lowest total.
Active listings reached 4,813, up 7.9% from September 2025 and 7.1% from August. This was the second-highest September level since 2016. The sales-to-new-listings ratio fell from 47.3% in August to 34.5% in September, meaning roughly one home sold for every three new listings. Months of inventory rose from 4.5 to 4.8. Among September results over the past decade, this year recorded the lowest sales-to-new-listings ratio and the highest level of months of inventory.
For buyers, the increase in availability may provide greater choice, more time to make decisions, and additional negotiating room. Affordability and borrowing costs, however, continue to constrain demand.
Other transaction measures also pointed to more subdued conditions. Homes sold for an average of 97.5% of their listing price, compared with 98.1% last September, while the median time on market increased from 22 to 27 days.
Single-family homes recorded 4.4 months of inventory and a benchmark price of $705,100, nearly unchanged from a year earlier but down 3.0% from August. Townhouses recorded 4.0 months of inventory and a benchmark price of $546,500, down 2.2% year over year but essentially unchanged from August.
Apartments remained the softest of the three major property types. Months of inventory rose from 6.3 to 7.3, while the sales-to-new-listings ratio fell from 43.0% to 27.0%. The apartment benchmark price was $380,800, down 6.1% from a year earlier and 3.1% from August. Although the average apartment sale price increased 0.9% year over year, the benchmark movement suggests that changes in the mix of apartment sales supported the average. Taken together, the September measures indicate that apartment supply continues to build relative to sales. |
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