Home prices up 0.1% in February

Canadian home prices in February edged up 0.1% from the previous month, according to the Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index™. It was the third consecutive monthly rise, following on three consecutive monthly declines. The slightness of the increase can be laid to declines in three of the six metropolitan markets surveyed. Prices were up 0.3% from the month before in Vancouver and 0.5% in Montreal and Ottawa. The Ottawa rise broke a run of five straight monthly declines. On the downside, prices fell 0.1% in Toronto, 0.4% in Halifax and 0.5% in Calgary.The 12-month gain in the composite index slowed to 3.8% in February, the eighth consecutive month of deceleration. The largest rises from a year earlier were in the three easternmost cities - 6.9% in Montreal and Ottawa, 7.6% in Halifax. It remains to be seen whether the Halifax result is biased due to the small number of transactions normally recorded in that market between December and February. In Toronto the 12-month increase was 3.4%, in Vancouver 3.5%. Calgary prices were down 3.4% from a year earlier, for a fifth consecutive month of 12-month deflation.
Data for March from the Canadian Real Estate Association show generally balanced conditions in major urban markets. In the two cities where homes are most expensive, Vancouver and Toronto, sales may have been brought forward by the January announcement that the maximum amortization period for an insured mortgage would be reduced to 30 years effective March 18.The Teranet–National Bank House Price Index™ is estimated by tracking observed or registered home prices over time using data collected from public land registries. All dwellings that have been sold at least twice are considered in the calculation of the index. This is known as the repeat sales method; a complete description of the method is given at http://www.housepriceindex.ca/
The Teranet–National Bank House Price Index™ is an independently developed representation of average home price changes in six metropolitan areas: Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax. The national composite index is the weighted average of the six metropolitan areas. The weights are based on aggregate value of dwellings as retrieved from the 2006 Statistics Canada Census. According to that census1, the aggregate value of occupied dwellings in the metropolitan areas covered by the indices was $1.168 trillion, or 53% of the Canadian aggregate value of $2.207 trillion.
All indices have a base value of 100 in June 2005. For example, an index value of 130 means that home prices have increased 30% since June 2005.