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The Entire Ottawa New Homes Market -
All Together in One Place!

With HomesExplorer™ we bring together comprehensive, detailed information about the Entire Ottawa New Homes Market in one place and in one simple format for easy comparisons.

Finding a New Home used to be a difficult, time-consuming and costly exercise for Home Buyers because it took such a long time and such an enormous effort to find and analyze all the information needed to find the Best Home, at the Best Price, in the Best Community.

New Home Buyers had to contact as many as fifty Ottawa home builders, and then, somehow, make comparisons between the dissimilar and often contradictory information they eventually found.

Buyers of Used Homes had a much easier time of it, because only they had the MLS - a single location for Buyers to search and compare older Ottawa Real Estate.

Now HomesExplorer™ - our interactive search and presentation system - does the same thing for New Home Buyers!

Search for New Homes by LOCATION and FEATURES	Search for New Homes by LOWEST PRICE	Search for New Homes by BUILDER
4.3 % * Average from 28 Financial Institutions for Closed, variable rate mortgage

Design of the Month Reviews :

An enclave is a small and exclusive area that is superior to its surroundings. It defines Pinecrest Enclave, with only five select new luxury homes. They are designed with infinite care by tasteful architect David Blakely and custom-built by Olympia Homes.

Pinecrest Enclave is an exclusive row of finely designed and custom built homes that provide their owners with a luxurious base for a superior quality of life. Well-designed enclaves create an aesthetic environment that is pleasing to live in and satisfying to admire when returning home.

Take a look at the fine details featured in the single detached 2-storey home named the Alpha Luxury, and the two semi-detached homes that fit neatly together with their choice of a one-car or a two-car garage. Architect David Blakely has been dedicated to designing elegant features in exclusive residential enclaves for thirty years.

The phenomenon of rare and well-designed custom homes in well-conceived enclaves is emphasized and elaborated on by specialist housing author Alain de Botton in his recent book The Architecture of Happiness. A point he repeatedly makes is that an artistically planned home is not merely a utilitarian "machine for living in", but a powerful everyday psychological influence on the home-owners' attitude towards life. Just as we influence our own home, so it influences us...

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Two-level Terrace Homes are really "stacked housing." It means that one 2-bedroom home is constructed on top of another 2-bedroom home. When built in England in the 1930s they were called maisonettes (or "little homes"). There are distinct differences in character between the upper and lower floors.

The advantage of the home at street-level - in this case Minto's Radcliffe 1V - is that you don't have to climb upstairs to get to your front door. The disadvantage is that, since it is the lower unit, it is built half-way below grade (or ground-level). You get compensated for that, however, by a lower price for the lower unit. When we last looked it was priced at about $11,000 less than the Gramercy IV upstairs.

In the case of Minto's Gramercy IV there is a unique advantage in including a home office which the lower unit (The Radcliffe IV) does not possess. Both designs are available only in Chapman Mills, Barrhaven (SW Ottawa) and Avalon in Orleans (Ottawa East).

Since we first started visiting Terrace Homes in all of the Ottawa suburbs (and in Gatineau), this type of condominium has achieved a distinct significance as housing prices have continued to rise, leaving them the most affordable homes in town - or rather, on the fringes of town. But as demand for them has surged as a consequence, builders have not been slow in raising their prices too...

Terrace Homes, offered by about eight of the leading Ottawa-Gatineau home builders, have become one of the most popular form of housing in Ottawa, mainly because of their affordability and convenience. They take several different forms - from a quadraplex by Claridge named Zen in Bridlewood, to one or two-level walk-up (or down) apartments named Java and Jazz. And some are 2-storey lofts, like at Richcraft's Deercroft Terrace.

Although some builders try to make their elevations distinctive from the front, the rear elevation differences also invite scrutiny, with their siding, stairs and balconies. In short, all Terrace Homes are not alike. And Urbandale's Jazz homes differ from all of them.

Jazz Terrace Homes are stacked housing on three levels, to accommodate a one-car garage for each unit, which is situated in the rear of the building's lowest level (although one of those levels may properly belong to another apartment). Other Terrace Homes currently being marketed in Ottawa provide only outdoor parking bays.

Jazz homes are offered in three different designs...

The Appleby is offered at Fairwinds in Kanata/Stittsville, and also in Barrhaven Mews for slightly more. Its size is minimal at 1092 Square Feet.

Visitors will have noticed that for several months the three lowest-priced new townhomes on the market in Ottawa were all offered by Mattamy Homes. So we thought it was time to investigate how well the Appleby is designed and what compromises Mattamy has had to make to fit everything in, because 1100 Sq Ft is a tight fit for a house.

Due to the recent housing boom that has propelled new home prices and Ottawa Real Estate sky-high, we have seen a return to a scenario last played-out in the 1970's. Back then it was mortgage rates, rather than home prices, that were extraordinarily high - about 20% higher than today. CMHC therefore devised several successful schemes so that Ottawa Home Builders could provide housing that was affordable. They specified a minimum size of 1100 square feet as suitable for lower income home buyers, and home builders were invited to come up with the best designs which CMHC would subsidise. The new homes would sell at $34,000 and the high mortgage rates of the time would be on a sliding scale so that families could afford the lowest monthly payments in the first few years and hopefully pay more later on when they obtained salary increases. A challenge then ensued between Ottawa home builders to design the most successful new home that would enjoy the greatest demand...

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Latest New Homes Articles :

This year exemplifies the old saying that "Everything changes, yet everything remains the same". Despite a modest slowdown in the worldwide economy, the US economy, and even the Canadian economy, Ottawa seems to be protected against the worst effects. And "Ottawa Housing Starts Show Strong Resilience", according to CMHC.

Just as we were protected last year against the excesses of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage scandal by the more sober attitude of CMHC, so we are also protected against the far-reaching effects of easy lending tactics by some U.S. banks. Most troublesome are US investment banks and mortgage lenders like Bear Sterns, Lehman BrothersFanny Mae and Freddie Mac whose shares lost 50% of their value on the stock exchange, due to foreclosures. The latter two hold $12 Trillion in US mortgages.

There was even a major run on New York banks in June by people who were in fear and panic of a coming worldwide depression - the likes of the Savings and Loans scandal in the United States or, even worse, the old days in 1929 when a considerable number of small investors preferred to keep their money safe under their mattresses instead of depositing it in scary banks. Who can blame them after the sub-prime mortgage fiasco!

Just as ENERGY STAR is a program to promote energy efficient home building in Ontario, Novoclimat is the equivalent program that applies to new homes and real estate in Aylmer, Hull, Gatineau and the rest of Quebec.

As Natural Resources Canada explains :

Novoclimat is an initiative that allows Quebec home builders to increase the energy efficiency of their homes by building to the Novoclimat technical standards. An energy evaluation is done on the completed home and a Novoclimat certificate is provided to the homeowner. Novoclimat homes meet an EnerGuide rating of between 78 and 80.

Upfront Gatineau new home builders like CHABITAT, who take the program seriously by installing it in all their homes and including it in their prices, provide all visitors to their Aylmer sales centre with comprehensive information about Novoclimat...

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Our New Homes and Ottawa Real Estate listings include Terrace Home Apartment Condos, High-Rise Apartment Condos, 3,4, and 5 Bedroom Single Detached Homes, Semi-Detached Homes, Townhouses (Townhomes) and Bungalows. We cover 22 Top Ottawa Home Builders from Ontario, and all areas in Ottawa and Gatineau - Ottawa Downtown, Alta Vista, the Glebe, Ottawa South, Ottawa West and East, Barrhaven, Kanata, Westboro, Stittsville, Richmond, Gatineau, Aylmer and Hull. We also provide the latest Ottawa Mortgage Rates from over 30 Ottawa Mortgage Brokers.