An article that I found at the Ottawa Business Journel about a forecast for the 2009 housing industry in Ottawa. This sounds familiar, like what I have been saying for the past couple of months. You can view the article here.

Ottawa Housing Prices to Hold Steady
By Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Tue, Jan 6, 2009 10:00 AM EST

Ottawa’s housing market will continue doing what it does best in 2009 - bucking the national trend, that is - according to a report released Tuesday by Royal LePage.

The report said strong job security and strengthening consumer confidence will continue to stimulate the real estate market, adding that Ottawa’s market is “unique” in that it has not seen the extreme price fluctuations witnessed in other major Canadian markets. “Instead, the city maintains slow and steady price appreciations, leading to a more sustainable trend line, positioning Ottawa to outperform other markets in 2009,” read the report.

Royal LePage said Ottawa’s average house price is expected to hold steady at $291,000 in 2009. The number of homes sold in the new year is expected to decrease, however, by five per cent to 13,110 units.

“Looking ahead, Ottawa’s real estate market will remain strong and stable through 2009,” said Pierre de Varennes, a broker/owner at Ottawa’s Royal LePage Performance Realty, in a statement. “Ottawa has not seen the exuberant increases over the past couple years that other markets such as Calgary and Edmonton have experienced.

“Ottawa’s house price appreciation trend line is more sustainable and shelters the city from the nervousness of consumers and negative fluctuations felt in other areas of the country.”

Meanwhile, Canadian housing market will avoid a U.S.-style crash in prices in 2009, according to a national report from Royal LePage, though the brokerage said prices will continue to fall across the country in the new year.

The national average house price will decline to $295,000, about a three-per-cent drop from 2008 levels, the firm said. Royal LePage also forecast total home sales would dip 3.5 per cent to 416,000 units in 2009.

The firm also said that a “very limited” number of Canadians will foreclose on their homes this year.

“While Canada’s housing market is anticipated to continue to move through a period of adjustment over the next six months, we should expect modestly lower home prices, not a U.S.-style collapse, which was brought on by a structural failure of the entire American credit system,” Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services said in a news release.

“Most consumers are not aware that nationally, Canadian housing market activity peaked in 2007 and has been adjusting lower since. We are well into this inevitable cyclical correction.”

Matt Richling is a sales representative with RE/MAX Affiliates Realty Ltd., Brokerage