House-price escalator pauses

Average Toronto house price down nearly $16,000 from June

Led downward by a $15,951 drop in Toronto, the average price of a house sold through multiple listing services in 24 Canadian markets fell 0.8 per cent in July from June’s record level. But that average price “” $332,442 “” was still up 13.1% from the July 2006 level, the biggest year-over-year rise since April 2004, the Canadian Real Estate Association said.

Its average July price of $581,108 was up $16,406 or 2.9 per cent from June and was 12.2 per cent higher than in July 2006. Toronto’s July average, $366,012, was down $15,951 or 4.1 per cent from June but up seven per cent from July 2006.

Toronto Real Estate Board president Donald Bentley said the month-to-month drop was no shock because high-end properties don’t tend to sell well in July and August. “People are at the cottage and so on,” he said.

Brian Naphtali, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, said high-end sales were one of the forces behind his city’s surge. There have been 45 sales above $5 million in the Vancouver area so far this year, compared with 23 in all of 2006.

On a year-to-year basis, the biggest percentage price jumps were in Saskatoon (where the July average price was $245,152, up 53.7 per cent), Edmonton ($353,919, up 38 per cent) and Regina ($176,537, up 28.7 per cent).

Prices were down in St. Catharines, Ont., and nearly unchanged in Thunder Bay and Windsor-Essex.

In a commentary on CREA’s figures on Wednesday, BMO Capital Markets economist Douglas Porter focused on the fact that 32,420 homes changed hands in July. “Sales rose 0.8 per cent from already lofty June levels, and were up a towering 19.5 per cent from year-ago levels,” he said.

He called this “another clear sign that the underlying Canadian economy had plenty of momentum before the credit squalls broke.”

Source: Canadian Real Estate Association