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Ottawa's Best Value Detached Family Homes

When Ottawa's new homes sales centres hummed with activity in January 2007 because of the uncharacteristically mild weather, visitors were confronted with town home prices climbing towards a quarter of a million dollars and detached 2-storey houses mostly to the mid $300,000 and $400,000 range.

Home buyers will now have to search even harder and compare designs and prices more discriminately to find the best value for their dollars. That includes not only choosing well thought out designs on the basis of utility and good taste, but also making sure you don't pay too much.

You are unlikely to find a detached 2-storey house for less than a price range of $260,000 - $280,000. The following is a list of 3-bedroom homes, but many have a 4-bedroom option, some of which might not cost more. There are 7 comparisons at that price level in Ottawa North-West (Kanata):

Note: All have 3 bedrooms but many also have a 4-bedroom option, which may or may not be bigger.

We have never before recommended using the price per square foot as the general criterion for comparing each design, because there are so many other factors and features involved in each case - its essentially "comparing apples with oranges." But with huge price escalations over the past six years of the housing boom, buyers need to watch their budgets even more carefully than before. So price - real price and value - have become even more important considerations than ever.

However, this increasingly important yardstick must be used with caution. Obviously the price per square foot of house will be greater when its built on a larger lot. And since the cost of every house begins with closely similar basics, like the cost to service the lot, a furnace, a staircase, and bathroom and kitchen fittings, the smaller the house the higher the cost per square foot will be. Similarly, the larger the house the smaller the cost per square foot is likely to be.

So, when comparing designs based on price per square foot, make sure you make the comparisons between those in the same class and range.

Our choice as an excellent compromise somewhere in the middle of the price range - in which the most expensive home is about $15,000 more than the lowest price - is The Fairglen by Phoenix. (Available in both Kanata, and East, in Orleans).

The following comparable designs are available on the other side of Ottawa, in Orleans.

Note: All have 3 bedrooms but many also have a 4-bedroom option, which may or may not be bigger.

It will be Spring before you can see a model home of The Fairglen. To understand more clearly why we chose it for our 5-Star Design Award for Excellence, see our New Homes Review specifically on The Fairglen.

You, on the other hand, might make other choices, depending on whether you are more interested in a wider lot or a lower price.

Several other of these designs possess highly attractive features. But we believe that The Fairglen wins hands-down on the bases of imaginative and attractive design at almost the lowest price per square foot.

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