Canadian Housing prices rose in August 2011

property market news today - Canadian Housing prices rose in August 2011 ; Housing prices rose in August for the ninth month in a row, according to the Teranet-National Bank national composite house price index, released Wednesday.

The 0.9 per cent gain in August – the fifth time in those nine months that the increase was 0.9 per cent or above – took the index to a new high of 149.46 (the baseline being 100 in June of 2005).

Toronto, where home prices rose 1.6 per cent, led the gains in the index, which would have risen by just 0.6 per cent if Canada’s biggest city was excluded. It was one of four metropolitan areas monitored in the index where housing price increases in August exceeded the national average; the others were Winnipeg (1.3 per cent), Hamilton (one per cent) and Ottawa-Gatineau (0.9 per cent).

Calgary saw a 0.7-per-cent gain month-over-month, while Vancouver and Edmonton both posted a 0.6-per-cent increase and Montreal prices rose 0.3 per cent. Prices were flat in Victoria and Quebec and down 0.2 per cent in Halifax.

“Vancouver’s August increase extended its string of consecutive gains to 11, the longest run of monthly rises among the markets covered,” said Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist with the National Bank. “The Halifax decline was the second in a row.”

Year-over-year, the national increase was 5.4 per cent in August, a level exceeded by five of the index’s 11 metropolitan areas – Vancouver (9.9 per cent), Winnipeg (7.6), Quebec (6.7), Toronto (5.6 per cent). Prices increased over the previous year’s levels by 3.9 per cent in Ottawa-Gatineau, 2.9 per cent in Halifax, 2.4 per cent in Hamilton and 0.8 per cent in Calgary.

“The Calgary appreciation broke a nine-month run of 12-month deflation,” Pinsonneault said. “Prices remained down from a year earlier for a 10th consecutive month in Edmonton (-2.1 per cent) and for a ninth consecutive month in Victoria (-1.2 per cent).