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The surprise is that Ottawa house and condo resale prices aren’t moving up faster. February data published this week by the Ottawa Real Estate Board showed just 2,413 residential listings at the end of February — down 20 per cent from a year earlier, and a remarkable 37 per cent below that tally from Feb. 28, 2017.

For condos, the collapse in the number of listings was even more extreme — these were off 31 per cent compared to Feb. 28, 2018 and down nearly 50 per cent over the past two years, producing a total of just 734.

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That’s a total of 3,147 homes and condos for sale last month, available for some 3,000 real estate agents across the city.

Despite these shortages, the average price for houses sold through the multiple listing service climbed a comparatively modest 8.6 per cent year over year to $466,6540 in February while condo prices were up 5.6 per cent for an average $268,350.

Nearly all of the increase in average condo prices stemmed from sales in the south end of city, where condos sold in February for $233,700 — up 18 per cent year over year. In sharp contrast, condo prices in the west ($329,500), downtown core ($391,100) and east ($312,800) were basically flat.

Given the general shortages, it’s not surprising that it took an average of 34 days to sell a residential property, down from 46 days in February 2018. Condo sales took longer at 45 days, compared to 70. If you include the full history of different agents trying to sell the same properties, the average cumulative days on market for residential listings was 54 days compared to 68 days a year earlier. For condos, the same metric produced a tally of 61 days versus 102 days in February 2018.