Salmon Arm, Blind Bay new home prices compared to rest of Canada......"Price of new housing still modestly up"

New house prices in Vancouver rose by a relatively modest annual rate of 6.6 per cent in August compared with a 9.2- per- cent increase in July, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association chief executive Peter Simpson said the slowing house- price increase has been expected, following major jumps during the past two years.

He noted Greater Vancouver house prices generally increased by an average of 13 per cent in 2005, and 21 per cent in 2006.

“ We predicted early this year that price increases would moderate back to single- digit territory, and that’s exactly what’s happening,” Simpson said on Thursday. “ It’s still an upward trend, but the increases had to slow down and hopefully it will make it a bit easier for people to get into the market.”

He said modest interest- rate hikes in the past year, combined with the 34- per- cent increase in house prices in 2005 and 2006, made double- digit price increases “ unsustainable.”

Statistics Canada said the growth in new housing prices across Canada continued to ease in August, despite soaring prices in the white- hot Prairie markets.

For Canada as a whole, prices rose 6.5 per cent over August 2006, a drop from 7.7 per cent annual growth in July. Growth has eased over the past 12 months. On a monthly basis, prices increased 0.4 per cent between July and August, resulting in a New Housing Price Index of 155.1 ( 1997= 100).

In the Prairie region, high demand and rising labour costs for construction fuelled record year- over- year increases for Saskatoon, at a whopping 53.6 per cent, Regina at 29.2 per cent and Winnipeg at 16 per cent.

In Alberta, housing price increases began to cool with Calgary registering a year- over- year increase of 6.1 per cent.

On the East Coast, housing prices rose seven per cent in Halifax and 4.5 per cent in St. John’s over last year.

Windsor, Ont., was the only Canadian city surveyed to post a decrease in August ( of 2.8 per cent), while Charlottetown posted an increase of just 0.2 per cent.

(prepared by Bruce Constantineau/Vancouver Sun)


SALMON ARM & BLIND BAY new housing prices ytd compared to 2006?
+33% in Blind Bay
+18% in SE Salmon Arm
+22% in NE Salmon Arm

(Source: Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board)