My Real Estate Blog - Market Trends, Tips & Updates

In January, the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price Index™ was up 0.5% from the previous month, matching the largest January increases in the 18-year history of the Index, in 2003 and 2010. Prices were up in seven of the 11 metropolitan markets surveyed. The increase exceeded the countrywide average in Hamilton (1.1%), Toronto (0.8%) and Montreal (0.8%). It lagged the average in Vancouver (0.3%), Victoria (0.2%), Calgary (0.1%) and Quebec City (0.1%). Halifax prices were flat. Prices were down from the month before in Winnipeg (−0.7%), Ottawa-Gatineau (−0.7%) and Edmonton (−0.1%). The Vancouver gain ended a run of three monthly declines. The index for Toronto, like the composite index, has risen in each of the last 12 months. For Hamilton it was the 11th straight monthly rise, for Victoria the 10th, for Calgary the fifth, for Quebec City the fourth. For Winnipeg it was the third straight monthly decline, for a cumulative retreat of 2.1% that took its individual index back below 200. The composite index, meanwhile, rose above 200 in January, signalling that home prices in the 11 markets as a whole have doubled since June 2005.

Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index™

In January, the composite index was up 13.0% from a year earlier – a 12th consecutive month of acceleration and the largest 12-month rise since January 2007. This increase was led by Toronto (a record 20.9%), Hamilton (a record 17.6%), Victoria (17.1%) and Vancouver (16.4%). The 12-month increases were much smaller in Ottawa-Gatineau (4.0%), Montreal (2.8%), Winnipeg (2.4%), Halifax (1.6%), Calgary (1.4%) and Edmonton (0.5%). In Quebec City prices were down from a year earlier (−0.2%).

Source: Teranet Enterprises Inc. and National Bank of Canada