Ottawa, Ontario, April 12--New housing prices in Canada edged up in February compared with a month earlier, while the 12-month rate of increase slowed slightly to 5.1%, the lowest rate since March 2004.
The market for new homes continues to be favourable for builders. This, together with higher prices for building materials and labour, helped to push prices up nationally. Land value increases were a factor in 7 of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed.
According to the New Housing Price Index (which is based on contractors' selling prices of new homes in 21 metropolitan areas), the price of new homes rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, which was up from the 0.2% advances observed in the previous two months.
Of the 21 metropolitan areas, 17 posted monthly gains. Regina and Charlottetown led the way with increases of 2.7% and 1.1% respectively. Price increases in Regina were attributed to a revived market along with higher costs of labour and building materials. In Charlottetown, higher builders' operating costs and material costs combined to push new housing prices up.
