Alta Vista Market Update November 2009

This is an update on Real Estate market activity in the Alta Vista area year to date as of November 12, 2009.  We include MLS areas that we consider to be relatively equivalent or uniform from the standpoint of actually living in the community.  There is always room for variation within a community but we work to draw boundaries that make more sense than the second level MLS area boundaries which, for example, may include an industrial park along with a residential neighbourhood.  For our "Alta Vista" definition we have excluded the areas closest to the General Hospital and also those that border busier parts of Walkley Road.  Those sub-areas will be tracked separately as property prices and the profile of typical buyers are quite different than in the heart of Alta Vista.  The most accurate representation may delve right down to individual streets but this is too time consuming for a general neighbourhood market update.  For our clients, Comparative Market Analyses that we prepare for buying or selling homes do carefully analyse property locations and features in detail.

As you have probably read in the media, Ottawa is enjoying a Seller's market this year, as measured by several metrics used to gauge the bias of a Real Estate Market.  Individual neighbourhoods often vary from the city-wide trend, of course.  The data here shows that Alta Vista closely follows the City trend:  The Sales to Listings Ratio of .69 is indicative of a market biased toward Sellers.  Most commonly, a balanced market is said to yield a sales to listings ratio between .4 and .6 with values below this range indicating a Buyer's Market and higher values indicating a Seller's Market.

The average days on market in Alta Vista of 26 is considerably more aggressive than the Ottawa average which has been hovering closer to 45 days this year. The average price increase over 2008 of .7% is less than the city-wide average increase of about 3%

Check back often for periodic updates on other great Ottawa Neighbourhoods.