The Canadian Press

Real estate company Royal LePage says big cities Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary are driving increases in national average home prices, while smaller cities had more moderate gains.

Royal LePage says the average price of a home in Canada increased between 3.9% and 5.2% in the second quarter of 2014 and prices are expected to go up steadily for the rest of the year.

According to the survey, the average price of detached bungalows rose 5.2% to an average price of $406,454. Meanwhile, standard two-storey homes rose 5.1% year-over-year to $440,972, while standard condominiums posted gains of 3.9% to $258,501.

The survey says the shortage of detached single-family houses led to significant price increases in Toronto and in Calgary, new listings couldn’t keep up with strong demand.

In Vancouver, which last year was seeing year-over-year price declines, is now posting mid-to-single digit increases. The Montreal market recorded lower price gains than its large metropolitan counterparts, but real estate demand has gone up following the election of a Liberal government in the province’s April election.

In contrast, smaller city markets are seeing more moderate house price gains. In Ontario, regions outside Toronto such as London posted year-over-year price increases of 2.2 and 2% for detached bungalows.

Comment: Are there any markets with prices going down? Doesn’t sound like it… And it seems almost all have shortages of listings.

“Chronic supply shortages are driving price spikes in Canada’s major cities, masking otherwise moderate home price appreciation nationally,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage.

“While a widening affordability gap in Canada’s largest urban centres is characterizing the national market Canadians read about daily, year-over-year house price increases in most regions of the country are presently tracking below the historical average,” Soper said Thursday in a news release.

Looking ahead, Royal LePage is projecting that the national average house price will increase at 5.1% for the full-year.

Comment: Which is pretty close to the CREA estimate of 5.7%.

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Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information – 416-388-1960

Laurin Jeffrey is a Toronto real estate agent with Century 21 Regal Realty.
He did not write these articles, he just reproduces them here for people who
are interested in Toronto real estate. He does not work for any builders.
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