December and January always battle for last place in terms of number of home sold in the Ottawa area by month. This year, transactions ticked up slightly in January, but activity was slightly lower than in January 2025.

Remember, you can always check the latest monthly Ottawa real estate data right here at OttawaAgent.ca on my housing market page: How’s The Market?

Delving into the data for each major single family home type ( detached & semi-detached homes, townhouses, and apartments being the three major segments ) it’s interesting that while detached and semi-detached home sales were down 9.8% and townhouse sales were up 12.0% over January 2025, with average prices of both categories down close to the same amount (3.3% and 3.8% respectively), the Ottawa Real Estate Board’s news release observed that detached and semi-detached homes represented the most stable segment.

On the supply side in January, we saw typical surges in new listings compared to December when many listings expire or sellers decide to cancel and take a break from marketing over the holidays. While the spike was more than 100% for each property type, the resulting level of inventory (active listings) suggests differing momentum in each case:

• detached and semi-detached new listings were 127.8% higher in January than December – after sales and listing terminations, active inventory is up 11.8% compared to this time last year
• new listings of townhouses were up 176.7% in January compared to December, and notably 48% greater than the number of new listings in January 2025. The end result, though, is active inventory up only 4.1% compared to this time last year.
• apartment condo listings were 116.7% higher in January than in December, but fewer sellers entered the market in January this year than last year, down 5.2%. Standing inventory is up 9.8% compared to this time last year.

Average sale prices slipped from December and were lower than in January of 2025 for every property type. Detached, semi-detached and townhouse prices dipped between 0.3% and 3.6% – with lower sales volume this single month of pricing data is certainly insufficient to suggest what may happen with home prices over the next 12 months, but it does represent current momentum in the market. Buyers have more negotiating leverage right now than they have for several years in the Ottawa market.

Condominium apartment prices were 12.1% lower on average than in January of 2025. The sample size is less than 100 units, and therefore one must be interpret the implications with caution. We’ll watch the market closely through mid-Spring to see if this dip in sale prices suggests erosion in typical condominium apartment value.