New home prices in Canada's western provinces are dropping, but some cities—particularly Ottawa and Toronto—saw notable price increases from late 2007 to late 2008. For more information, read the following article from Property Wire.
New home prices in Canada fell in November for the second month in a row indicating a general cooling of this section of the real estate sector.
But it wasn't an even picture with some regions experiencing considerable price increases, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.
The average price on a new house declined 0.3 percent, the federal agency said, as demand continued to cool across the national real estate market.
The dip confirms the first reverse in home prices in more than a decade, following the 0.4 percent decline experienced in October.
But property investors need to examine the statistics in detail as not everywhere saw a decline. St. John's recorded the largest annualized gain, with the value of a new home up more than 25 percent from 2007, and the monthly increase at 3.4 percent.
In a sign that Saskatchewan is beginning to feel the bite of a recession it has largely avoided so far, home prices were down 0.5 percent.
New home prices in Edmonton recorded an annual plunge of 7.9 percent and prices dipped 2.5 percent in Calgary. Prices fell 0.3 percent in Edmonton and 1.1 percent in Calgary between October and November.
Developers are cutting prices in a number of regions. On the West Coast, builders cut new home prices in Vancouver by 1.7 percent in November, a trend continued in Victoria.
Property markets in Eastern Canada, which have shown more stable supply-demand conditions, continued to rise, Statscan said.
Compared with November 2007, selling prices were 4.3 percent higher in Ottawa and 2.0 percent higher in Toronto.
In Quebec, the annual growth rate was 5.4 percent, while in Montreal, prices increased 4.6 percent, the agency said.
No market east of Saskatchewan experienced a month-to-month decline in new home prices.
This article has been reposted from Property Wire. View the article on Property Wire's international real estate news website here.
