When seasonal effects are removed, the Composite price index edged up in September, recovering some of the ground lost in previous months. While this applies in particular to Toronto, it is not the case for Vancouver and Calgary, where the seasonally adjusted indices extended a string of declines (left chart). This downtrend in home prices is consistent with the weakness in home sales reported by the respective real estate boards of these two metropolitan areas. At the opposite, seasonally adjusted indices extended a string of solid increases over the last few months in Montreal and Ottawa-Gatineau (right chart). Again, this is consistent with the performance of the home resale market. In Montreal, home sales in September were up 8% from a year ago and at their highest level for a month of September in 9 years. In Ottawa-Gatineau, the market is almost in the “favorable to sellers” territory judging from the new-listings-to-sales ratio.
The attached report along with selected research from the Economics and Strategy Group can also be accessed by clicking the link below: