In March the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price IndexTM was up 1.5% from the previous month, a sharp acceleration from the February increase of 0.5%. The advance was led by three of the 11 constituent markets : Halifax (3.3%), Hamilton (2.8%) and Toronto (1.9%). The rise for Vancouver matched the 1.5% of the composite index. Rises were more moderate for Winnipeg (1.1%), Ottawa-Gatineau (1.1%), Montreal (1.1%), Victoria (1.0%), Calgary (0.9%), Quebec City (0.9%) and Edmonton (0.3%). It was the first time since last November that all 11 markets of the composite index were up from the month before.

The March rise was consistent with the increase in the number of home sales over the last several months as reported by the Canadian Real Estate Association. For a seventh straight month, the number of sale pairs[1] entering into the 11 metropolitan indexes was higher than a year earlier. The unsmoothed composite index, seasonally adjusted, was up 2.7% in March, suggesting that the uptrend of the published (smoothed) index could continue.

The March composite index was up 10.8% from a year earlier, for an eighth consecutive acceleration and the strongest 12-month gain since September 2017. It was led by five markets – Halifax (22.5%), Hamilton (20.9%), Ottawa-Gatineau (19.0%), Montreal (16.1%) and Toronto (11.2%). Lagging the countrywide average were Victoria (10.5%), Quebec City (8.1%), Vancouver (7.9%), Winnipeg (7.8%), Edmonton (2.9%) and Calgary (1.8%).

Besides the Toronto and Hamilton indexes included in the countrywide composite, indexes exist for seven smaller urban areas of the Golden Horseshoe – Barrie, Guelph, Brantford, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Oshawa and Peterborough. In March all seven were up from the previous month and from a year earlier. The 12-month gains ranged from 20.8% for Kitchener to 24.9% for Oshawa.

Indexes not included in the composite index also exist for 13 markets outside the Golden Horseshoe. Seven of them are in provinces other than Ontario : Abbotsford-Mission and Kelowna, BC; Lethbridge, Alberta; Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke, Quebec; and Moncton and Saint John, New Brunswick. The March indexes were up from the previous month for all of them except Lethbridge (−0.8%), with Abbotsford-Mission and Saint John standing out for their monthly advances of 3.0% each. All seven were up from a year earlier, their gains ranging from 3.1% for Lethbridge to 19.9% for Moncton.

As for the six markets in Ontario outside the Golden Horseshoe – London, Kingston, Belleville, Windsor, Thunder Bay and Sudbury – indexes were up from the previous month for all except Kingston (−0.8%). The 12-month changes ranged from +11.0% for Thunder Bay to +27.4% for Belleville.

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Big Jump in Home Prices in March by Teranet-National Bank House Price Index