Ottawa home prices drop 4.5% in January

A for sale sign displays a sold home in a development, in Ottawa, on July 6, 2015. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

It was a chilly start to 2026 for Ottawa’s housing market, with home sales down 5.6 per cent and average home prices down 4.5 per cent from a year ago.

The Ottawa Real Estate Board says 610 residential properties were sold in Ottawa in January, down from 640 homes sold in January 2025.

The average sale price for residential properties was $641,436 last month, down from $649,900 in January of last year. According to the Ottawa Real Estate Board, the average sale price for a single-family home was $793,874 in January, compared to $821,202 in January 2025.

The real estate board said the data shows that housing demand is “still present, even as buyers continue to proceed cautiously amid ongoing affordability considerations” in Ottawa and across Canada.

“What January is showing us is a market that’s adjusting in a healthy way,” Tami Eades, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board, said in a statement.

“We’re seeing more choice for buyers, more realism on the selling side, and pricing that’s responding to those conditions without sharp swings. That kind of balance is a sign of stability, not stress.”

Of the 610 properties sold in Ottawa in January, 276 were single-family homes, along with 215 townhomes and 95 condos.

There were 1,522 new listings on the market in January, while there were 2,673 active listings on the market. Ottawa currently has 4.4 months of inventory on the market.

“This level of supply is providing buyers with more choice and negotiating flexibility, while still allowing well-priced homes to attract solid interest,” the real estate board said.

“Rather than putting sharp downward pressure on prices, current inventory levels are supporting a more balanced market.”

The Ottawa Real Estate Board said the average sale price for a townhome in Ottawa was $536,106 in January, down 3.3 per cent from a year ago. The average sale price for a condominium was $388,307, down 12 per cent from January 2025 and lower than December’s average price of $401,465.

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