May’s new housing price index brings little in terms of "new" news as Vancouver’s new housing rate is once again one of the fastest rising in the country.
The nation as a whole saw a 0.7% month-to-month increase in the price of new homes, while Vancouver and Victoria each saw a 1.1% increase. This was the largest monthly price increase for Victoria since 2007. According to Statistics Canada, builders reported market conditions as the primary reason for these changes.
Since May 2015, Vancouver has seen an increase in new housing prices of 5.1%. Vancouver came in second only to Toronto, which together with neighbouring Oshawa, rose 6.9%. At 2.4%, Victoria had the fifth largest year-to-year increase in the country.
Vancouver has seen their new home prices increase for 12 consecutive months. However, people living on Canada’s West Coast can take comfort in the fact that they once again come in second to Toronto, where prices have risen for the past 16 months.
The majority of the 21 metropolitan cities Statistics Canada surveyed posted little change from the previous month. Five of the metropolitan cities studied saw decreases in new housing prices since May 2016, the largest being Saskatoon, where new house prices fell 2.8%.
