Sun
Home prices continued to rise through the spring, but the pace of appreciation slowed in the largest, formerly hottest, housing markets of Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto, Royal LePage Real Estate Services said Wednesday.
Nationally, the average selling price of a detached bungalow during the second quarter was $262,845, 7.1 per cent higher than a year earlier, Royal LePage’s second quarter report said. The price for a standard condominium rose 6.5 per cent to $183,397 and for a standard two-storey home 5.9 per cent to $318,390.
“In the second quarter, we began to see an inversion of the established geographic trends observed in the Canadian housing market over the past few years,” said Royal LePage president Phil Soper.
“Markets such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, where there has been frenetic activity, experienced a softening in the acceleration of price increases.”
However, the slowdown in the pace of price increases is not due to any decline in demand for homes, he added.
“In fact, strong economic fundamentals and low interest rates have kept demand for homes among Canadians resolutely high, and this will continue to drive prices higher,” Soper said.
Royal LePage noted that in the second quarter of this year, there were double-digit price increases in Victoria and Winnipeg, while in Atlantic Canada where the increases were the most moderate, there was a greater balance between buyers and sellers, it said.
In Alberta, a vigorous provincial economy, the flow of people into the province and the ensuing increased demand for housing boosted prices in both Calgary and Edmonton, the latter market getting an extra nudge from corporate relocations into the city and a shortage of homes for sale which “frustrated” buyers, it said.
Average price gains moderated in Vancouver and Victoria, although multiple offers remained common, it said.
