House price index rises in July but increase is below 12-year average: Teranet

TORONTO – The Teranet-National Bank Canadian house price index was up 0.7 per cent in July, a below-average increase compared with the same month in recent years.

Over the past 12 years, the gain between June and July has averaged one per cent.

Compared with last year, the July index rose 1.9 per cent — slightly faster than in June but among the slowest annual rates of growth since November 2009.

Amna Asaf, an economist at Capital Economics, said the slowdown in house price inflation is in line with the more sluggish sales figures in past months.

“As demand and supply imbalances continue to intensify this year and next, we still anticipate that house prices will eventually decline outright,” Asaf said in a note.

Only two of the 11 markets covered by the index showed declines from June, while Montreal was flat compared with June and eight markets showed increases.

Toronto, Edmonton, Victoria and Hamilton showed gains above national average while Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau and Quebec City had smaller gains.

The local price indexes fell in Winnipeg and Halifax compared with June.