Month: March 2024

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Ottawa Real Estate Board to Join Leading-edge PropTx MLS® Service

The Ottawa Real Estate Board’s (OREB) mission is to provide its 4,000 REALTOR® Members with leading-edge resources to achieve success in our community’s real estate market. OREB, in partnership with the Renfrew County Real Estate Board, Rideau-St. Lawrence Real Estate Board, and Cornwall and District Real Estate Board, is excited to announce a new development in that mission — we’re adopting PropTx, a dynamic technology platform with tools, insights and applications that provide a secure process for smooth real estate transactions for buyers and sellers alike. In conjunction with today’s announcement by the Kingston and Area Real Estate Association that they will also adopt PropTx, this alignment will bring a seamless experience for all Members in Eastern Ontario.

“The progression to using PropTx is about harnessing shared data and combined buying power to provide a comprehensive suite of tools that will empower REALTORS® and their clients to make informed strategic real estate choices in a rapidly moving industry,” says OREB President Curtis Fillier. “Buying and selling property are among the most important transactions in a person’s life. With PropTx, OREB is building more capacity to help Members provide unparalleled service with confidence.”

PropTx upgrades the real estate experience by:

  • Increasing connectivity to save time,
  • Enhancing customer service levels and collaboration among all parties,
  • Securing compliance and greater transparency, and
  • Sharing greater access to data.

Included in PropTx’s suite of tools is REALM™, a mobile-first platform that merges land registry and MLS® data to create a singular and enhanced experience, as well as the CoreLogic platform that REALTORS® currently use. Also featured are SkySlope Forms and SkySlope Offers, which streamline and protect the offer experience. HoodQ offers extensive hyper-local data, invaluable insights and guidance that will assist clients in intelligent decision making. And Fintracker provides a secure, paperless and automated identification and verification tool that is compliant with Canada’s financial intelligence, anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing initiatives.

“PropTx is both a business-builder for REALTORS® and a gateway to more choice for clients,” says Kevin Crigger of PropTx Innovations Inc. “Establishing a province-wide database, it’s also enabling greater transparency and offering deeply insightful real estate market data.”

Already employing this innovative real estate platform are the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, the London St. Thomas Association of REALTORS®, the former Brampton Real Estate Board, and the Central Lakes Association of REALTORS® (encompassing Durham, Quinte, Northumberland, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes). Other boards are poised to join, which will expand access to data and bring this province’s sector closer to a centralized MLS® system.

About the Ottawa Real Estate Board
The Ottawa Real Estate Board is Ottawa’s largest trade association with 4,000 sales representatives and brokers in the Ottawa area. Members of the board are also Members of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

The MLS® system is a member-based service, provided by the REALTOR® members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. The MLS® mark symbolizes the cooperation among REALTORS® to affect the purchase and sale of real estate through real estate services provided by REALTORS®. MLS® commercial and residential listings are available for viewing on the Board’s internet site at https://www.oreb.ca/ and on the national website of CREA at https://www.realtor.ca/.

About PropTx Innovations Inc.
PropTx Innovations Inc. (PropTx) provides leading technology service solutions to REALTORS® through a range of tools, insights and applications that improve the transaction experience for them and the clients they serve. PropTx is the home of a blockchain-enabled, innovative, trusted and modern MLS® platform that provides a more secure, streamlined and automated process for managing real estate transactions. PropTx is a wholly owned, subsidiary and taxable entity of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB).

Ottawa’s MLS® Market Activity Shows Strong Start to the Year

The number of homes sold through the MLS® System of the Ottawa Real Estate Board totaled 886 units in February 2024. This was an increase of 15.2% from February 2023.

Home sales were 13.8% below the five-year average and 5.7% below the 10-year average for the month of February.

“Even with higher prices and the interest rate holding steady, Ottawa is a strong, active market,” says OREB President Curtis Fillier. “With metrics across the board up from last year, it’s clear both buyers and sellers are making moves. The metrics, however, don’t tell us about all the people relegated to the sidelines because affordability remains out of reach for many.”

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) recently reported that “communities with homes under $500,000 are becoming increasingly scarce.” A decade ago, 74% of Ontario residential properties had a home value estimate of less than $500,000 but that number has dropped to just 19% today.

“REALTORS® know firsthand there is persistent demand for housing in Ottawa, and our market’s activity is constrained by a lack of affordable and suitable supply,” says Fillier. “That’s why we’re currently advocating for impactful measures such as allowing four residential units on property lots and getting rid of exclusionary zoning. There’s a missing middle that we need to build up.”

By the Numbers – Prices:

The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures.

  • The overall MLS® HPI composite benchmark price was $628,500 in February 2024, a gain of 2.8% from February 2023.
    • The benchmark price for single-family homes was $708,500, up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis in February.
    • By comparison, the benchmark price for a townhouse/row unit was $495,000, up slightly at 0.6% compared to a year earlier.
    • The benchmark apartment price was $417,000, up 2.7% from year-ago levels.
  • The average price of homes sold in February 2024 was $651,340, increasing 2% from February 2023.
  • The dollar volume of all home sales in February 2024 was $577 million, up 17.5% from the same month in 2023.

OREB cautions that the average sale price can be useful in establishing trends over time but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value. The calculation of the average sale price is based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold. Prices will vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

By the Numbers – Inventory & New Listings

  • The number of new listings saw an increase of 29.5% from February 2023. There were 1,539 new residential listings in February 2024. New listings were 10.3% above the five-year average and 3.3% below the 10-year average for the month of February.
  • Active residential listings numbered 2,158 units on the market at the end of February 2024, a gain of 16.3% from February 2023. Active listings were 59.6% above the five-year average and 17.7% below the 10-year average for the month of February.
  • Months of inventory numbered 2.4 at the end of February 2024, unchanged from February 2023. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.