New house prices fell slightly in the Edmonton region while remaining flat in the Calgary region in February, says a new report released on Thursday by Statistics Canada.

The New Housing Price Index indicated that prices in the Edmonton census metropolitan area dropped by 0.1 per cent month over month.

Across Canada, average prices were flat. StatsCan said builders in nine of the 27 census metropolitan areas surveyed reported higher prices for homes sold. London and Windsor (both up 0.6 per cent) registered the largest increases as builders in both CMAs tied the gains primarily to higher construction costs.

On a year-over-year basis, prices in the Calgary region are down 0.8 per cent. They’re off by 0.4 per cent in the Edmonton region.

Nationally, new house prices edged up 0.1 per cent from a year ago.

“For the ninth month in a row, home prices in the historically more affordable CMAs of Ottawa (+4.9 per cent) and London (+3.4 per cent) rose faster than in other CMAs surveyed. Regina recorded the largest decrease (-2.8 per cent) among the 11 CMAs that reported 12-month declines. New home prices in Regina have been decreasing steadily for the past year,” explained the federal agency.

“In February, annual price movements also declined in Toronto (-1.0 per cent), Calgary (-0.8 per cent), Vancouver (-0.6 per cent) and Edmonton (-0.4 per cent). These four CMAs combined represent 60 per cent of the weight of the national index.”

– Mario Toneguzzi 

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