House prices

Metro Vancouver housing prices declined for the seventh straight month in January, falling 8.3 per cent from peak levels reached last June on the Teranet National Bank of Canada House-Price Index.

Teranet and National Bank released their latest edition of the index Wednesday. Their report says January's number "extends and deepens the home-price [deflation] that began last February."

The Teranet National Bank index measures prices from the sales of homes that have traded at least twice. January's drop in Metro Vancouver's index measure took it down 2.6 per cent from December, and 4.16 per cent lower than last January's figure.

"[The index] confirms that in early 2009, after more than five years of seller's-market conditions, Canadian housing as a whole was a buyer's market," the report said.

For Vancouver, it noted "the speed of decline seems to be quite constant for the last seven months."

Those prices declined in the face of sliding demand that saw Metro Vancouver real estate sales, measured through the Multiple Listing Service, fall by some 35 per cent in 2008.

Over the first two months of 2009, sales were half the levels recorded in January and February a year ago.

Across Canada, Calgary saw the deepest decline with an index measure 8.2 per cent lower than January 2008 and down 11.4 per cent from August 2007.

Toronto's index was down 2.4 per cent from January 2008 and 6.1 per cent from its peak in August 2008.

The national index measure, a composite of the six urban markets Teranet tracks, declined for the fifth straight month, down 2.4 per cent from January a year ago and 5.5 per cent from its peak last August.

Prices in Montreal actually edged up in January, by 0.1 per cent after three months of declines.

In Ottawa, prices slipped 1.4 per cent in January -- the third month of declines -- and have fallen 3.6 per cent from their peak reached in October 2008.

("Metro house prices down for 7th month" prepared by Derrick Penner/Vancouver Sun)