As we close out 2025 and welcome the New Year (but avoid the weight scale!), it’s time to reflect on real estate in Ottawa. December is characterized by seasonal slowness; this year the Ottawa residential market demonstrated greater sluggishness than usual as inventory levels and days on market both increased at a greater rate than Decembers of recent past years.  Buyers are increasingly gaining more leverage - 4.3 active months of inventory the highest number since 2016 (when December was at 5.7 months of inventory) and apartments representing the highest level of supply at 7.9 months - it will be interesting to see if the early start of 2026 will reverse buyer caution to slow the uptick in inventory levels across all residential property types.  Prices, while stable on a YTD basis (2.8 increase as a whole), have gradually ticked down in the latter half of 2025.