Chris Heard

For the second straight month, Ottawa real estate agents were busy in April as sales of existing housing rose 2.2 per cent.

However, average sale prices of the 1,594 units sold rose only slightly as bargain hunters continued to drive demand in a market still recovering from a deep slump.

Sales of existing housing plunged last fall as buyers worried about the growing global recession. In a five-month span, sales fell an average of 19 per cent per month compared to a year earlier.

But the Ottawa market turned around in March, unlike most other Canadian cities, to register a surprising 7.2-per-cent jump in sales to 1,162 units.

That was up more than 47 per cent from February, when just 788 units were sold.

The growth continued in April, although not as strongly. Still, the ability to generate more sales than a year earlier, when the Ottawa economy was buoyant, was significant.

Sales of condominium apartments and two-storey houses led the April sales growth with five-per-cent increases.

However, the renewed consumer confidence has yet to generate significant increases in prices. The average price of all classes of housing sales was $298,150, a gain of one per cent from a year earlier.

The average price of bungalows rose 5.5 per cent to $306,031, while two-storey houses dipped 0.5 per cent to $326,524.

Condominium apartment and townhouse prices rose three per cent to $241,322 and $194,328 respectively.