Canada: National house price index rises again in August – NBF

Marc Pinsonneault, analyst at National Bank Financial, notes that Canada’s national house price index rose again in August but the national HPI has grown at a below-inflation rate of 0.6% over the last 12 months.

Key Quotes

“The weakness is not regionally broad-based. The national HPI has been depressed by 12 consecutive months without a rise in Vancouver’s index, which dropped a cumulative 6.6%.”

“Other Western metropolitan areas (Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg) also contributed to slow the national HPI. At the opposite, annual growth has been decent in most of the regions located in the central and eastern part of the country. That being said, home sales in August were up 55% from March in Vancouver, where market conditions went from “favorable to buyers” to “balanced”.”

“Over that period, home sales rose 19% in Calgary and 12% in Edmonton. These improvements, if sustained, will sooner or later help limit home-price deflation in this region.”