House Price Falls for Alberta and British Columbia

Each month, The Canadian Real Estate Association compiles the statistics of existing homes and properties sold.

The average price of a house sold in August in Canada was $290,347 a drop of almost $14,000 over the last 12 months. Although house prices rose in most provinces, the declines in expensive British Columbia and Alberta outweighed any gains elsewhere. CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump said “Price declines in some of Canada’s more expensive housing markets will outweigh further price gains in other markets and continue pulling the national average price lower over the rest of the year and into 2009.”

Mr Klump countered that most Canadians are not under any financial duress to sell their home. Therefore, he said, “Canadian homebuyers should not expect to see the kind of price correction that’s underway in the United States, where overly indebted homeowners are selling into a housing market with a high volume of foreclosures.”

The highest average house price gain was in Newfoundland & Labrador with an increase of over 20 percent on the year.

House Prices In Canada
August 2008

Province	House Price $ (£)	12 Month % change
Nova Scotia	180,801 (89,683)	2.7
Prince Edward Island	142,168 (70,520)	1.7
New Brunswick	144,384 (71,619)	7.7
Newfoundland & Labrador	187,744 (93,127)	21.3
Quebec	208,878 (103,610)	5.9
Ontario	291,760 (144,722)	1.0
Manitoba	182,612 (90,581)	10.3
Saskatchewan	216,701 (107,491)	17.5
Alberta	343,148 (170,212)	-5.2
British Columbia	421,685 (209,169)	-4.1
Northwest Territories	338,864 (168,087)	12.6

assumed exchange rate £1.00 = $2.016