Ottawa Housing Market Updates

In its release for September 2026, OREB said new listings rose much more sharply than usual, “giving buyers greater choice and shifting market conditions further in their favour”. Months of inventory were 4.8 and the sales-to-new-listings ratio 34.5%. Conditions differ by type of home and by area, so ask us about yours.

We do not tell anyone it is a good or a bad time to buy: that depends on your finances and how long you plan to stay, and nobody can say where prices go next. What the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB)’s September 2026 figures show is how much choice buyers have now.

Active listings were 4,813, up 7.9% from a year earlier, months of inventory were 4.8, and homes sold for an average of 97.5% of list price (98.1% a year earlier). OREB said the rise in new listings was “giving buyers greater choice and shifting market conditions further in their favour”. Our buying page explains how we search and make offers with you.

$685,640 for a residential sale in September 2026, down 1.0% from a year earlier, according to the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB). The median sale price was $625,000 and the MLS® HPI composite benchmark $623,500.

The benchmark fell 2.2% from August to September 2026, which OREB called the largest August-to-September decline in a series that dates to 2005. OREB also wrote that “one month alone does not establish a sustained price trend”. The average price was down 1.0% from a year earlier.

OREB publishes one average price for all residential sales, $685,640 in September 2026, and an MLS® HPI benchmark for each type of home: single-family $705,100, townhouse $546,500 and apartment $380,800.

OREB’s figures say “apartment”, not “condo”, and it publishes no average dollar price for apartments, so we give none. A benchmark is the estimated price of a representative home of that type, not an average of the homes that sold.

No figure can tell you whether your home will sell for more later, and we do not forecast. What OREB’s figures show is how selling is going now: in September 2026, homes sold for an average of 97.5% of list price (98.1% a year earlier), the median time on market was 27 days (22), and months of inventory were 4.8.

In its September 2026 release, OREB noted that new listings have declined in both October and November in each of the past ten years. To see what your own home would likely sell for today, start with a home evaluation and read how we sell a home.

The average depends on which homes sold that month: more detached or higher-priced sales lift it. The MLS® Home Price Index benchmark tracks a representative home with consistent characteristics, so it reflects underlying price changes more closely.

From the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB)’s monthly news release, which we read in full and link from each update. We do not adjust or round its figures, and we do not publish forecasts.