Canadian home prices rose for the fourth straight month in August, while the annual increase in prices picked up for the first time in nine months.
The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which measures changes for resales of single-family homes, showed on Thursday that prices increased by 0.4% last month from July.
The index was also higher when seasonally adjusted, which was not the case in May, June and July, said Marc Pinsonneault, National Bank of Canada’s senior economist.
Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada said that activity in Canada’s housing market has recovered more quickly than expected, helped by lower mortgage rates. Activity had been restrained by the introduction of stricter mortgage rules at the beginning of 2018.
Still, the increase in August was below the average for the month seen over the last 21 years covered by the index.
Compared to the same month last year, the index gained 0.6%, led by a 6.4% advance for the capital region of Ottawa-Gatineau. For Toronto, the country’s largest housing market, the year-over-year gain was 3.8%.
Meanwhile, some western Canadian markets were a drag on the index, including Vancouver, which was down by 6.6%, according to a Reuters report.
