Canadian home prices accelerated in February, rising 0.5 per cent from January with all 11 major markets rising on the year for the first time since 2018, data showed on Wednesday.
The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which tracks data collected from public land registries to measure changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed price gains in seven of the 11 major metropolitan markets.
Prices rose 2.3 per cent in Halifax, 1.1 per cent in Hamilton and 0.8 per cent in Vancouver, but the index was down 0.1 per cent in Edmonton and fell 0.5 per cent in Ottawa-Gatineau.
On an annual basis, the index was up 9.8 per cent in February, the seventh consecutive monthly acceleration and the strongest 12-month gain since September 2017.
Ottawa-Gatineau continued to lead year-over-year gains, up 19.0 per cent from February 2020, followed by Halifax at 18.7 per cent and Hamilton at 18.1 per cent. Calgary was up 0.8 per cent, its first annual gain since June 2018, though it remained well below its 2014 peak.
Teranet also has indexes for seven smaller cities just outside the Greater Toronto Area, which posted year-on-year gains ranging from 17.2 per cent to 23.1 per cent. Toronto, by comparison, was up 10.1 per cent on the year.
The Canadian Real Estate Association upped its forecast for home resales in 2021 earlier this week as Canadian home sales and prices continued to surge in February.