Single-family home prices drop in almost half of cities

There was a slight drop in Canada’s house prices in December according to the latest Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index. Repeat sales of single-family homes slipped by 0.2 per cent from the month earlier. Five of the eleven cities studied saw declining prices; Halifax had the largest drop (1.9 per cent) followed by Calgary (1.1 per cent), Quebec (1.0 per cent), Montreal (0.9 per cent) and Vancouver (0.4 per cent). There were increases for Toronto (0.3 per cent), Edmonton (0.2 per cent), Hamilton (0.1 per cent) and Ottawa (0.1 per cent). Prices in Winnipeg and Victoria were unchanged. Annually there were increases in all cities except Quebec and Halifax and the national increase was 4.9 per cent.