National home prices show a gain in August

There was a gain in the national home prices in August according to the latest Teranet-National Bank Composite HPI.

The index shows a 0.6% rise in the month, down from the 0.7% gain in July which is also the 19-year average for August.

Toronto was the largest negative impact on the index with a 0.4% drop in aggregate property value, the first declining trend in the CMA since January 2016. Excluding condos, the index was down 1%.

Prices increased in Vancouver (2.4%), Victoria (1.8%), Ottawa-Gatineau (1.4%), Winnipeg (1.3%) and Edmonton (0.8%). There were below-national-average gains for Halifax (0.3%) and Calgary (0.1%) and declines in the indexes for Montreal (−0.1%) and Quebec City (−0.6%). Hamilton matched the national gain of 0.6%.

Year-over-year, there was a 13.1% gain for the index nationally, led by Toronto (23.9%), Hamilton (23.4%) and Victoria (16.0%).