A new home is displayed for sale in a new housing development in Ottawa on July 14, 2020.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Canadian home prices accelerated sharply in March, with Halifax and Hamilton leading a bonanza of month-on-month gains felt across all 11 major markets in the country, data showed on Tuesday.
The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which tracks data collected from public land registries to measure changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, rose 1.5 per cent from the previous month.
Prices rose 3.3 per cent in Halifax, 2.8 per cent in Hamilton and 1.9 per cent in Toronto, with gains in the other major centers ranging from 0.9 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
On an annual basis, the index was up 10.8 per cent in March, the eighth consecutive monthly acceleration and the strongest 12-month gain since September 2017. Halifax led year-on-year gains, up 22.5 per cent from March 2020, followed by Hamilton at 20.9 per cent and Ottawa-Gatineau at 19.0 per cent.
Teranet also has indexes for seven smaller cities just outside the Greater Toronto Area, which posted year-on-year gains ranging from 20.8 per cent to 24.9 per cent. Toronto, by comparison, was up 11.2 per cent on the year.
Last week the Canadian Real Estate Association said Canada’s average home price soared an eye-watering 31.6 per cent year-on-year in March, hitting a new high as sales also climbed to a new all-time record, gobbling up a surge of new listings.
Housing starts, meanwhile, jumped 21.6 per cent in March from February to hit a new record amid skyrocketing demand from buyers.
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