Home prices for repeat sales in Canada reached their peak in August, but the Calgary and Edmonton markets continued to struggle.
According to the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price Index, prices in 11 metropolitan markets in Canada rose by 0.24 per cent from July as individual market indexes were up in eight of those markets.
Prices also rose by 1.37 per cent year over year.
The 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.
Calgary saw prices drop by 0.26 per cent month over month and by 0.47 per cent year over year. In August, prices remained 3.73 per cent lower than their peak in October 2014.
In Edmonton, prices rose 0.16 per cent month over-month but were down 0.34 per cent year over year. Those prices were down 2.95 per cent from their peak in September 2007.
Nationally on a monthly basis, prices rose in Ottawa-Gatineau (1.4 per cent), Hamilton (1.4 per cent), Montreal (1.2 per cent) and Quebec City (0.5 per cent).
The composite index annual increase was the smallest 12-month rise since November 2009. This weakness is partly attributable to a peak in August 2017, from which the index declined in following months, said the report.
The index was up from a year earlier in Winnipeg (1.3 per cent), Quebec City (1.4 per cent), Halifax (4.6 per cent), Montreal (4.8 per cent), Victoria (5.0 per cent), Ottawa-Gatineau (5.2 per cent) and Vancouver (7.6 per cent).
Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran Calgary-based journalist who worked for 35 years for the Calgary Herald, including 12 years as a senior business writer.
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