It’s more than 4,000 kilometres from Vancouver to New Brunswick, but as far as house prices ago it is light years in distance.

The benchmark price for a Canadian home was $609,700 in February, reports the Canadian Real Estate Association, but the data shows that there is a cavernous west-east price gap in the country.

Benchmark urban home prices now range from a low of $174,800 in Moncton, New Brunswick to $1.07 million in Metro Vancouver. The city closest to the Canadian-wide benchmark is Greater Victoria, with a typical home price of $642,800.

Three cities have homes priced below the national benchmark : Regina, at $278,700; Saskatoon, at $292,800 and, of course, Moncton.

Both Ottawa and Montreal are in the middle-range, with benchmark home prices in the $370,000 range.

Greater Toronto, at a benchmark of $751,700, and Oakville-Milton, at $719,600 are the only centres outside of BC that come close to the Metro Vancouver prices.

Benchmark Numbers Highlight Housing-Price Chasm Between West Coast & Eastern Canada by Frank O’Brien | Business in Vancouver