The first quarter of 2016 has closed so we thought, what better time to recap Canadian housing numbers? A good starting point is the Teranet – National Bank House Price Index™ (HPI). The Teranet National Bank House Price Index reports the rate of change of Canadian single-family home prices.
We like to rely on this index for two reasons:
- Where the data comes from – data is derived from property records of public land registries – which is the most accurate source for land data.
- Coverage – the HPI covers 11 major Canadian Cities – Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec and Halifax.
Here is how Q1 played out:
- Jan 2016 – Home prices dropped by 0.1%
- Feb 2016 – Home prices increased by 0.6%
- Mar 2016 – Home prices Increased by 0.8%
- Q2 Teaser: April 2016 – Home prices increased by 1.2%
Good news for real estate sales professionals – 3 out of 4 months saw increases. In fact, the past 3 months consecutively have shown increases.
The Vancouver and Toronto markets continue to fuel the market with red hot increases to property values as evidenced by house price indices across the board. The average price of a single family detached home in Canada was widely reported to have soared over 1 million dollars coming into 2016 with Canada’s average recently reported by CBC to be over $500,000 – you can read more on this here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/crea-house-prices-march-1.3537143.
Many have speculated that foreign investment is, at the least, behind what seems to be a boom in British Columbia, to the point where the government has even expressed concerns over supply vs. demand. Here are some interesting articles on the topic to whet your appetite:
- https://www.biv.com/article/2016/5/foreign-buyers-driving-price-gains-vancouvers-high/
- https://www.biv.com/article/2016/5/bc-crack-down-shadow-flipping-track-foreign-invest/
- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-market/chinese-investment-in-canadian-real-estate-set-to-increase-in-2016/article29628005/
Meanwhile, in Toronto, soaring house prices are pushing buyers to look outside of the city and we don’t just mean in the GTA. Toronto’s market has led to booms in Hamilton, Barrie and other cities that are not considered the GTA.
No doubt that the Bank of Canada maintaining the incredibly low lending rate of 0.5% is helping as well. With a strong first quarter, all indicators seem to point towards a strong spring and summer in this ever exciting Canadian real estate market. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that things continue to grow as they have been over the last few months!
For more on the Teranet – National Bank House Price Index™ please visit: http://www.housepriceindex.ca/.
Want to take advantage of the tools that give you a bigger piece of the action? Visit www.geowarehouse.ca today.
