Canadian home prices August 2016 are up according to the Teranet-National Bank Housing Index.

HOME PRICES UP 1.5% IN AUGUST

In August, the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price Index™ was up 1.5% from the previous month, the third-largest August rise since the Index series began in 1999. However, the advance was not very broad-based; prices were up in seven of the 11 metropolitan markets surveyed.

Best performing markets

Monthly gains exceeded that of the countrywide index in the four markets that have been driving it in recent months: Toronto (2.8%), Victoria (2.2%), Hamilton (2.0%) and Vancouver (1.7%). Prices were also up in Ottawa-Gatineau (0.8%), Halifax (0.7%) and Edmonton (0.4%).

Slower markets

Prices were down from the month before in Winnipeg (−0.1%), Calgary (−0.2%), Montreal (−0.8%) and Quebec City (−1.9%).

Vancouver and Toronto

For Vancouver it was the 20th straight month without a decline, though it was the first in seven months with a rise of less than 2%. For Toronto it was the seventh consecutive gain, with a marked acceleration in the last three months to an average 3.1% monthly. The Toronto index topped 200 for the first time in August, signalling that prices there have more than doubled since June 2005.

Winnipeg passed that milestone last June, Vancouver in September 2015. Prices in Hamilton have risen in each of the last six months, prices in Victoria and Ottawa-Gatineau in each of the last five months. In the latter market, prices topped the previous record set in August 2014. August price declines ended runs of seven monthly gains in Winnipeg and five monthly gains in Montreal.

Canadian regions

In August, the composite index was up 11.4% from a year earlier, for a seventh consecutive month of acceleration and the largest 12-month increase since July 2010. This rise was led by Vancouver (25.8% – the largest increase on record), Victoria (17.5%), Toronto (14.6%) and Hamilton (13.0%). The 12-month increases were much smaller in Winnipeg (3.1%), Halifax (1.1%), Ottawa-Gatineau (1.0%) and Montreal (0.6%). Prices were down from a year earlier in Edmonton (−0.3%), Quebec City (−3.2%) and Calgary (−4.5%).