In April the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price IndexTM was up 2.4% from the previous month, a marked acceleration even from the March increase of 1.5%. The advance was led by five of the 11 constituent markets: Halifax (5.4%), Toronto (3.0%), Victoria (2.8%), Ottawa-Gatineau (2.8%) and Hamilton (2.8%). Rises were more moderate for Vancouver (2.0%), Winnipeg (1.9%), Montreal (1.5%), Calgary (1.3%), Quebec City (1.2%) and Edmonton (0.4%). It was a second consecutive month in which all 11 markets of the composite index were up from the month before.

The April rise was consistent with the increase in number of home sales over the last several months as reported by the Canadian Real Estate Association. For an eighth 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 2.0% in April, suggesting that the uptrend of the published (smoothed) index could continue.

The April composite index was up 11.9% from a year earlier, for a ninth consecutive acceleration and the strongest 12-month gain since August 2017. It was led by six markets – Halifax (26.8%), Hamilton (22.9%), Ottawa-Gatineau (19.5%), Montreal (15.9%), Victoria (12.4%) and Toronto (12.3%). Lagging the countrywide average were Vancouver (9.4%), Quebec City (9.1%), Winnipeg (8.8%), Edmonton (3.3%) and Calgary (2.9%).

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 April all seven were up from the previous month and from a year earlier. The 12-month gains ranged from 23.8% for Kitchener to 27.9% for Barrie.

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 April indexes were up from the previous month for all of them except Lethbridge (−0.1%), with Abbotsford-Mission and Saint John standing out for their monthly advances of 4.5% and 4.3% respectively. All seven were up from a year earlier, their gains ranging from 2.5% for Lethbridge to 22.0% for Moncton.

Of the six markets in Ontario outside the Golden Horseshoe – London, Kingston, Belleville, Windsor, Thunder Bay and Sudbury – indexes for all were up from the previous month and from a year earlier. The 12-month changes ranged from 15.6% for Kingston to 27.8% for Belleville.

Click here to view the full report.

Teranet – National Bank House Price Index An Even Bigger Jump in Home Prices in April

Home Prices Continue Their Relentless Advance in April