Canadian Real Estate Prices Are Climbing At The Fastest Pace In Almost 2 Years

Canadian real estate prices are seeing accelerated growth across the country. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) data shows the price of a typical home increased in January. The increase marks the 9th consecutive month of price acceleration for the national index. Prices are now growing at the fastest rate in almost two years.

Canadian Real Estate Prices Reach A New Peak

Canadian real estate prices reached a new peak, with a substantial rate of growth. CREA reported the unadjusted benchmark price reached $640,200 in January, up 4.74% from a year before. The seasonally adjusted benchmark hit $648,600 in January, up 4.55% from a year before.

Canadian Real Estate Benchmark Change

The 12 month change in the unadjusted benchmark price of a home across Canada.

Source: CREA, Better Dwelling.

The rate of growth needs a little more focus, since it was such a strong move last month. January’s unadjusted benchmark is 0.80% higher than just a month before. The 12-month rate of growth made the 9th consecutive climb. It’s now at the highest level since February 2018. Price growth acceleration was led by Ottawa and Montreal. Both markets are approaching overheating – at a slow time of year.

Ontario and Quebec Real Estate Prices See Largest Increases

The largest price increases were in Ontario and Quebec. Ottawa’s benchmark, a.k.a. typical home price, reached $459,100 in January, up 13.53% from last year. Montreal made the second biggest annual climb with the benchmark hitting $387,000, up 9.74% from a year before. Niagara comes in third with a benchmark of $440,900, up 9.52% from last year. Both Ottawa and Montreal have seen about half the growth Toronto and Vancouver have seen over the past 5 years.

Canadian Real Estate Benchmark Price

The seasonally adjusted price of a typical home in Canada’s largest real estate markets.

Source: CREA, Better Dwelling.

The largest 12-month drops were in Western Canada, although only one market made a really big one. Regina’s benchmark is the fastest falling at $252,900 for January, down 6.9% from a year before. Vancouver is in a distant second with a benchmark of $1,026,100, down 1.42% from a year before. Edmonton wasn’t too far off for declines with a benchmark reached $317,200, down 1.39% from a year before.

Canadian Real Estate Price Change – 1 Year

The 1 year percent change in the seasonally adjusted price of a typical home, in Canada’s largest markets.

Source: CREA, Better Dwelling.

Nearly Half of Canadian Real Estate Markets Are At New Price Peaks

Nearly half of Canada’s real estate markets are at new price peaks, according to the benchmark. Some markets aren’t quite so lucky, however. Regina prices are the furthest from peak to $252,900 in January, down a whopping 18.21% from peak. Edmonton follows with a benchmark of $317,200, down 15.14% from peak. Barrie, a suburb of Toronto, comes in third with a benchmark of $485,400, down 10.08% from peak. Prairie markets are understandably weaker  since taking a tumble in 2015. Barrie real estate prices are a bit of a mystery, and are up only 2.09% from 3 years ago.

Canadian Real Estate Price Change From Peak

The percent change from seasonally adjusted peak pricing for a typical home in Canada’s largest markets.

Source: CREA, Better Dwelling.

Most Canadian real estate markets are seeing prices rise, and quickly. Markets with the largest annual gains were left out of the national price rally in 2016-2017. However, they’re making up for lost ground fast. The fact that almost all markets are showing large growth, should tell you more about credit than local desirability.

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17 Comments

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  • Kyle 4 years ago

    Insolvencies are rising, consumer credit is slowing, retail and restaurants are folding rapidly – but prices are improving. Makes sense.

    • Average Man 4 years ago

      I don’t understand this. Can you anyone explain how all this works? How are prices rising while people are also going insolvent?

      • Cazador 4 years ago

        Because the CREA uses a benchmark house price or in other words a Franken-number

  • Nocluewhatimdoinghere 4 years ago

    B.O.C should probably go ahead and lower rates then. No?

    • Mtl_matt 4 years ago

      You’re probably sarcastic, but a stable currency is more important to our economic future than paper millionaires backed by poorly located bungalows.

  • Carolyn 4 years ago

    Pull the speculation out of housing. One home and/or one recreational property per family. Then we will see what REAL economic growth can be allowed to occur. Trading homes and sucking up all foreseeable earnings of the nations people will not produce educated citizens, innovation, research and development, nor real economic growth through production.

    • Derek Bowman 4 years ago

      If its just one home per person, then who owns the home that i rent? Or should i just be homeless until i can afford to buy.

    • Joseph 4 years ago

      Carolyn, we could get the government involved like you ask. But then things would bleed out at a slower pace.

      By allowing things to come to fruition on their own, we’ll have an exciting juiced up version of the same event with a cliff that approaches with much less warning than if the gov gets involved.

      With that said, casinos are an area that need to be better monitored. Casino owners have proven time and again that they can’t handle the job of self-policing on their own. Especially the ones out in BC.

  • Asterix1 4 years ago

    Don’t believe these seasonally adjusted, industry manufactured “benchmarks”! Complete joke…

    Prices are not going up folks, its all relative to the sales mix. Less sales at the bottom of the pyramid will result in higher averages, even if prices are falling in all categories. Ross Kay explains it better than I!

  • Jo 4 years ago

    Prices are not all going up but in some areas in Toronto they are. If you were to study the market really closely, you will find pockets where prices are going up noticeably…East York being one clear example.

    Sales/price in the luxury market ~2m are not really picking up though.

    • Grim Reaper 4 years ago

      “Sales/price in the luxury market ~2m”, is that the luxury market? Not to me.

  • Nichoas MacLean 4 years ago

    I agree with Asterix1, I feel that the MONEY is fleeing the West Coast where the foreign investors are being taxed a;though not enough.. Money making it’s was to the East Coast i.e. NS, NB, PEI, Montreal and Ottawa where they can shelter it and not be taxed. Essentially if we had a politician in office that had a set to say NO MORE FOREIGN buyers in the Country,

    I have SOLD in Victoria, fortunately for me before there was a whisper of the STRATA getting into trouble with insurance or should I say lack there off.. Lets see what this does to the BOOMING BC housing market, you can pretty much guess what way this is going to go…. DOWN, get out of STRATA ASAP..

  • C0MMON_sense 4 years ago

    as long as mortgage brokers keep doing their “magic” and mortgages keep getting approved , this price frenzy will never stop .. Looking at avg canadian income these prices doesnt make any sense , sooner or later govt will realize but it will be very late by then .. Govt should step in immediately and investigate how these fat mortgages get approved ..this ignorance is cooking a bigger mess and we will all suffer .. real estate is a dead asset and doesn’t help in economy growth , same money ideally shd go towards education , research , industry , healtcare .. etc .. Govt is letting a dubai type real estate bubble …

  • owen reece mm 4 years ago

    very interesting. The article is all positive about price gains but all the comments are about a crash. you guys actually believe articles on this site that is why you thought it was too risky to get in and you missed out. use your brain and know that there will be no crash. in 2017 government introduce fair housing plan, then ofsi, then interest rates went up and foreign tax and empty home tax and still nothing but demand demand demand. use your common sense – immigration plus only 1 real city to live in Canada for immigrants and low interest rates and a troubled world that sees Canada as the only stable country that does not require world wide income declaration. Actually, Toronto is undervalued.

    • brash2019 4 years ago

      “there will be no crash”

      Uh-huh. There will also never be any downturns in the economy, certainly no recessions, and I hear it on good authority that there won’t even be any rainy days! Sunshine and unbridled gains forever!

  • Paul 4 years ago

    How come there is no data on Halifax. We are kind of in the dark as to what’s happening here. Moncton is on the charts. Surely the market in Halifax deserves a spot!

Comments are closed.