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While the average and median MLS® sales prices increased approximately $5,000 (+1%) from March to April, the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index™, which uses the repeat sales method to calculate the index, shows that prices in Calgary continue to decline. Prices declined 0.6% from the previous month, and 9.8% from April 2008.
Compared to April 2008, the MLS® average price for SFH in Calgary was down 10.17%, with the median down 9.52%. So far then, the MLS® price has been showing a fairly accurate picture (within 2%) compared to the HPI which shows a 9.8% decline from last April.
Of the six constituent city indices, three were down from a year earlier: Vancouver (−10.9%), Calgary (−9.8%) and Toronto (−7.6%). Three cities held out against 12-month deflation, though with marked deceleration of their 12-month rises: Montreal (2.4%), Ottawa (0.6%) and Halifax (0.2%). The 12-month price increase in Halifax was the first since January. Calgary prices have been correcting for well over a year now, since August 2007, and are now down 13.3% from the peak of that month. Calgary has shown monthly declines in 17 of the 20 months posted since then, including the 10 consecutive months from last July through April.
