Over the past few months, the market’s housing prices have crept down
Vancouver defied the national housing price trend in August, being the only major market to have seen an annual decline during that month.
The latest edition of the Teranet – National Bank of Canada House Price Index indicated that Vancouver’s average housing price (across all asset classes) fell by 6.63% year-over-year, bringing composite prices down by 6.96% from the peak seen in July 2018.
“The city’s index has shown negative growth every month this year,” Better Dwelling stated in its analysis of the data – an observation that has been mirrored in another study.
“In recent months, home prices have generally been stabilizing in British Columbia and the Prairies, a measure which had been falling until recently,” the CREA noted recently.
Across all asset classes, the benchmark price fell by 8.3% annually to $993,300. This was the lowest level since May 2017, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
This is in contrast to the overall Canadian figure, with prices reaching new highs last month.
“The sudden acceleration of price growth came largely from smaller markets. Most cities saw price growth last month, with Vancouver being a notable exception.”
The aggregate Canadian index went up by 0.41%, up 0.61% from August 2018 last year. Much of this strength was due to an upward surge in Toronto, which benefited from an especially robust market that saw marked increases even with detached segment’s flat prices.
“The index for the city showed prices increased 0.80% in August, and are now up 3.79% from the same month last year. Prices are now just 0.11% below the all-time high reached in July 2017.”
