In January, Calgary prices declined 0.5% from the previous month and are down 9.7% from the peak. Year-over-year prices are up 1.9% and up 6.7% since the trough date of June 2009.
Canadian home prices in January were up 7.5% from a year earlier, according to the Teranet-National Bank HPI. January was the 4th consecutive month in which prices were up from a year earlier, after 10 consecutive months of 12-month deflation. The turnaround is due to nine straight monthly increases in the countrywide index. However, January’s 0.5% monthly gain was the smallest so far.
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Housing (Un)Affordability
Earlier this week the Conference Board of Canada issued a report stating that 20% of Canadian households struggle to afford their homes.
“The unaffordability tends to affect cities more than rural areas. So anybody that lives in a city is probably at higher risk, especially in cities with buoyant housing markets like Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto,” said Mike Grant, an economist with the conference board.
“The rate (of unaffordability) in Calgary is somewhat higher than the rate for Canada. It’s one in five for Canada, about 20 per cent, but more like 25 per cent for Calgary.” (Source: Calgary Herald, March 31, 2010)
If you’re interested in the report, feel free to send me an email.
