Both the national composite of the recently expanded 11-city index remained at 149.52 in September, unchanged from August. The index is aimed to track home price changes using the repeat sales method.
The housing market trend included the end of an 11-month upswing in Vancouver house prices, which was the longest streak of the 11 metropolitan markets covered in the index. The index showed Vancouver house prices remained unchanged in September over August. Vancouver home prices are still 10.4% higher than they were a year ago, however, which is another index high mark.
The only city to have homes decline in price year-over-year in September was Edmonton, down 0.7% from 12 months ago, and down 0.3% from August.
Winnipeg had the largest house price gain in September, up 0.6% from August, as well as up 8.1% on the year.
Earlier this week, the National Bank and Teranet announced it had expanded the index from six cities to 11.
Up until this month, only Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa (now Ottawa-Gatineau), Toronto and Vancouver were covered. Added were Edmonton, Hamilton, Quebec, Victoria, and Winnipeg.
The indices now represent 64% of the Canadian aggregate value.
“Since the very first index publication month, there has been demand for additional coverage. We are pleased to fulfill this demand,” said Simon Cote, managing director of risk management solutions at National Bank. “The current phase of index development is one step towards providing a more complete reference measures for an asset class with an aggregate value surpassing the Canadian stock market.
