Blazing Toronto real estate market inflating national average home price

Single-family home prices nationwide have increased for the 12th consecutive month in January

Blazing Toronto real estate market inflating national average home price

The latest edition of the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index revealed that the consistently exceptional performance of the Toronto housing market has propelled the national home price average to new heights last month.

Updated on Tuesday (February 14), the index showed that Toronto home prices posted an annual increase of 20.9 per cent in January, while the Hamilton market experienced a 17.6 per cent rise in house values.

As a result, single-family home prices nationwide have increased for the 12th straight month in January, growing by 0.5 per cent from December and 13.0 per cent year-over-year.

The January national numbers represented the greatest annual increase since January 2007, Reuters reported.

Various think-tanks have suggested that Ontario is now the main contributor of strength and activity to Canada’s residential real estate sector.

In January, Teranet noted that Toronto was one of the only two Canadian markets that exhibited gains in the second half of 2016, along with Victoria.

The Canadian Real Estate Association supported this observation, with only Toronto and Victoria showing increases of more than 1 per cent in the quarter ending November 2016.

Data from Statistics Canada supported these observations, with only 3 of the 13 major markets apart from Ontario posting gains greater than 2 per cent in new construction of low-rise housing.



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