The national HPI has grown at a below-inflation rate of 0.6% over the last 12 months.
However, the weakness is not regionally broad-based. The national HPI has been
depressed by 12 consecutive months without a rise in Vancouver’s index, which
dropped a cumulative 6.6%. Other Western metropolitan areas (Victoria, Calgary,
Edmonton, and Winnipeg) also contributed to slow the national HPI. At the opposite,
annual growth has been decent in most of the regions located in the central and
eastern part of the country (left chart). That being said, home sales in August were up
55% from March in Vancouver, where market conditions went from “favorable to
buyers” to “balanced” (right chart). Over that period, home sales rose 19% in Calgary
and 12% in Edmonton. These improvements, if sustained, will sooner or later help limit
home-price deflation in this region.

September 2019