New house prices in Calgary declined by 1.6 per cent in October on a year-overyear basis--the largest decline for the metropolitan area since November 1991, said Statistics Canada.
The New Housing Price Index, released Thursday by the federal agency, showed that, on a national level, new home prices year-overyear increased by 1.5 per cent, a slower pace than the 2.1 per cent advance recorded in September and the smallest annual increase since October 1999.
On a monthly basis, prices decreased 0.4 per cent between September and October, the first monthly decrease across the country since September 1998.
Prices declined by 0.6 per cent in Calgary on a monthly basis.
The largest year-over-year increases were in Regina (22.8 per cent) and St. John's, N. L. (22.3 per cent).
Edmonton recorded a 12-month drop of 7.7 per cent, which was the largest annual decline since May 1985. Prices declined by 1.7 per cent in Edmonton from September to October 2008.
At the national level, the overall year-over-year increase was comprised of a 0.7 per cent rise in the house-only component and a 3.4 per cent jump in the land only component.
For the Calgary census metropolitan area, the house-only component dropped by five per cent on an annual basis while the land-only component increased by 5.9 per cent, said Lai Sing Louie, senior market analyst in Calgary for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
"Builders are telling us it's a little cheaper to build a new house than a year ago," said Louie.
The Calgary CMA includes the city, Airdrie, the Municipal District of Rocky View, Chestermere, Cochrane, Irricana, Beiseker and Crossfield.
Statistics Canada said prices were down 0.4 per cent in Vancouver on a year-over-year basis, the first annual drop since April 2001. Vancouver was also down 1.1 per cent on a monthly basis. In Victoria, contractors' selling prices decreased 1.1 per cent year-over-year, down from an annual increase of 0.2 per cent in September.
New housing prices year-overyear fell in only three markets in October--Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria.
The dip in new home prices has been mirrored in the resale market as well. According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, MLS average sale prices for single-family homes in Calgary metro in November were$435,471,a drop of 5.8 per cent compared with November 2007. In the condo market, the average sale price fell by 8.6 per cent from a year ago to $285,820.
Prices have also fallen in other segments of the MLS market in the Calgary area. For towns outside of Calgary, residential properties sold for an average of $359,400 last month, down 6.2 per cent from November 2007.
The biggest drop in price in the past year in the Calgary region was in the country residential (acreage) MLS market, as average sale prices have plunged by 30.5 per cent to $565,889.
Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, December 12, 2008
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