Housing prices jumping

Market shows signs of recovery

Canwest News Service May 13, 2010



Prices for new homes in Canada rose 0.3 per cent in March, following a 0.1- per-cent increase the previous month and extending gains that began in July 2009, Statistics Canada reported yesterday.

The increase was in line with economists' forecasts.

Statistics Canada said its new house price index also was up 1.6 per cent in March from a year earlier, compared with an annual increase of 0.9 per cent in February.

"The growth in March was mostly due to higher prices in Vancouver," the agency said.

The new housing price index measures changes over time in the selling prices of new houses.

Higher material costs helped boost the index in Montreal and the Ontario cities of Kitchener and London, where prices saw the biggest month-to-month jump.

In Charlottetown and Hamilton, which saw the biggest decreases between March and February, "some builders negotiated lower selling prices," StatsCan said.

Of the 21 metropolitan regions included in the index, the agency reported that Victoria, Edmonton and Charlottetown were the only ones to report year-over-year declines.

On Monday, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported home construction rose 1.3 per cent in April as the real-estate market continued to show signs of recovery.

Housing starts were up by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 201,700 units last month, up from a revised 199,200 units in March.