Canada Immigration focus on Canadian Finance: The latest Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index shows that although the housing markets in other major Canadian metropolitan areas are showing signs of cooling, the Canadian housing price index reached a new record high in January of this year, driven by rising prices in Vancouver.
This index tracks the fluctuations of the housing market primarily by monitoring changes in the resale prices of single-family homes; the survey does not indicate actual monetary values. The January index shows that the housing price index for 11 major metropolitan areas across Canada rose by 0.4% compared to December, marking the largest single-month increase in the past five months. Compared to January of last year, prices in 8 of the 11 metropolitan areas increased, with the largest growth seen in Vancouver (7.5%) and Calgary (7.1%).
The Canadian housing market slowed down in 2012, gradually stabilized in 2013, but began to cool again in the final months of last year as construction and demand weakened and price growth decelerated. Economic experts suggest that the housing market will experience a soft landing. The Teranet-National Bank survey also shows that the price index in January increased by 4.5% compared to the same period last year, higher than the 3.8% year-on-year increase in December. However, TD Securities senior analyst Issa noted in the accompanying commentary to the survey that despite the rise in housing prices, the research unit still expects the market to soften.
