New House Prices Continue Rising in June

August 23, 2017

Nationally, new house prices rose 0.2% in June, curbed by a pause in new house price rises in Southern Ontario and down from a 0.8% increase in April and a 0.7% gain in May.

Toronto recorded no change in new home prices in June. The same dynamic was observed in a number of neighbouring census metropolitan areas (CMAs), with only St. Catharines-Niagara (+0.1%) and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (+0.1%) reporting minimal price increases.

These results follow the introduction of the Fair Housing Plan by the Ontario government in April. The plan includes the 15% Non-Resident Speculation Tax, as well as other measures aimed at cooling the housing market in Ontario.

Elsewhere, Vancouver (+1.5%) and Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario part (+0.9%) were the top contributors to the national gain. This was the largest increase in Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario part since April 2011. Builders in both metropolitan areas cited improving market conditions as the main reason for the increase.

Overall, prices were up in 8 CMAs, down in 5 and unchanged in 14.

New Housing Price Index, 12-month change

New house prices in Canada rose 3.9% over the 12-month period ending in June, led by Toronto (+8.5%). Other notable year-over-year price increases were observed in Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo (+6.5%), London (+6.4%), Vancouver (+6.2%) and St. Catharines–Niagara (+6.0%).

Declines were recorded for five metropolitan areas, with St. John’s (-0.9%) posting the largest decrease.

Source: Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/170810/dq170810a-eng.htm