If you've been watching the Ottawa real estate market this summer, August brought a noticeable shift. Sales pulled back sharply, inventory climbed, and while prices stayed relatively steady, the overall picture points to a market heading into fall with more questions than answers.
Here's a breakdown of what happened, what it means, and what to watch for if you're thinking about buying or selling in Ottawa this fall.
The Headline: Sales Dropped Significantly
A total of 1,002 homes sold through the MLS® System in August, down 18.6% from August 2025 and 24.4% from July. For context, the typical July-to-August dip over the past decade has been under 6%. This year's slowdown was several times larger than normal seasonal patterns.
The August sales count tied 2022 for the lowest August total since 2016.
Year to date, 9,283 homes have sold in Ottawa, down 6.9% compared to the same period in 2025, with total dollar volume sitting at roughly $6.5 billion — a 7.2% year-over-year decline.
This wasn't confined to one segment of the market either. Single-family sales fell 16.3%, townhouse sales dropped 19.9%, and apartment sales declined 22.3%. Every major property type felt the pullback.
But Prices Held Their Ground
Here's the twist: despite the drop in sales, prices didn't follow suit.
Average sale price: $688,253 (up 0.3% year-over-year, up 0.7% from July)
Benchmark price (MLS® HPI): $637,700 (up 1.0% year-over-year, up 0.6% from July)
Median price: $622,357 (down 1.2% year-over-year, down 2.0% from July)
As OREB President Tami Eades put it, steady pricing alongside a sales pullback tells us this isn't a simple story of the market moving uniformly in one direction. Buyers are seeing less competition, while sellers are facing a more challenging environment and may need to be thoughtful about pricing and positioning.
Inventory Is Growing — and That Matters
New listings totalled 2,119 in August, essentially flat year-over-year but down 16.2% from July (a normal seasonal pattern). Active listings reached 4,496, up 11.3% from a year ago — the highest August inventory level since 2016.
The more telling number is months of inventory, which jumped from 3.5 in July to 4.5 in August. Historically, this metric barely moves between July and August — the typical change over the past decade has been zero, and no prior year saw a jump larger than 0.4 months. A full one-month increase is a meaningful signal that homes are taking longer to sell relative to what's available.
Worth noting: this rise in inventory wasn't purely about supply piling up. OREB's review found that terminations, cancellations, and expired listings became more prominent through the summer relative to completed sales — suggesting some sellers may be pausing or reassessing their plans rather than pushing forward under current conditions.
How the Market Behaved by Segment
Single-family homes remained the most stable segment, with the benchmark price up 2.2% year-over-year and 4.0 months of inventory.
Townhouses showed more strain, with 4.1 months of inventory, active listings up 27.1% year-over-year, and a benchmark price down 4.0% — a segment worth watching closely.
Apartments continued to be the softest category, a pattern that has held through 2026 and the back half of 2025, with 6.3 months of inventory and a 43.0% sales-to-new-listings ratio. That said, active apartment listings declined from July and the benchmark price actually rose 1.9% month-over-month, so it's not a story of straightforward deterioration.
A Look Across Ottawa's Neighbourhoods
Ottawa's three suburban submarkets still accounted for over 70% of sales, but all posted year-over-year declines: Suburb West (-14.3%), Suburb East (-20.0%), and Suburb South (-25.1%).
Ottawa Suburb West had the firmest conditions of the three, with 3.6 months of inventory.
Ottawa Center and Ottawa Rural East saw softer conditions, with 7.0 and 6.5 months of inventory respectively.
Ottawa Rural West was the sole bright spot, with sales up 22.6% — though its low transaction volume (76 sales) means that number should be read with some caution.
What's Driving This, and What Comes Next
The national backdrop is actually improving. Statistics Canada reported real GDP grew at an annualized 3.3% in the second quarter, and the Bank of Canada's July outlook described the economy as showing signs of improvement, even while flagging continued uncertainty.
Looking further ahead, CMHC's 2026 outlook expects Ottawa-area sales to stabilize, with slower demand growth and rising supply keeping a lid on price increases. At the national level, RBC Economics expects home resales and prices to decline overall in 2026 before a modest recovery begins in 2027.
The Bottom Line
One month doesn't establish a trend — but the size of August's sales decline, the drop in the sales-to-new-listings ratio, the jump in months of inventory, and the widening year-to-date shortfall are all signals worth watching as we move into fall.
The key question for Ottawa's market: will the properties that left without selling come back with new pricing strategies, or will more sellers step back from the market altogether? That answer will go a long way toward telling us whether August was a blip or the start of something more sustained.
Thinking about buying or selling in Ottawa this fall? Market conditions like these change the calculus for both sides — reach out and let's talk through what it means for your specific situation.
Source: Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB), August 2026 Market Update
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