Vancouver and BC have again posted Canada’s biggest annual drops in new home prices in July, Statistics Canada reported September 11.
The average price of a new home both in Vancouver and across BC fell 1.8 per cent in July compared with the previous year – the largest price drop of the 21 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and 10 provinces surveyed. Only six CMAs and three provinces saw declines.
The fourth biggest price drop was seen in Victoria CMA, where the new house price index fell 0.8 per cent.
Statistics Canada’s new home price index measures the total price of both house and land.
In Vancouver, Victoria and BC, the declines were due to a decrease in house-only prices, which fell 2.7 per cent, 1.2 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively, while the price of land remained almost flat.
As with previous months, the CMA that saw the biggest overall new home price increase was Calgary, where the index rose 6.9 per cent compared with July 2013. Alberta was the province with the biggest rise at 3.3 per cent.
Nationwide, the index was unchanged in July, following a 0.2 per cent year-over-year increase in June.
On a month-over-month basis, Vancouver’s new home prices fell 0.2 per cent compared with June 2014. BC’s index dropped 0.1 per cent month over month and Victoria remained flat with June.
