There’s a new home price index on the market, reports The Globe and Mail.
Brookfield RPS, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., has quietly soft-launched its own Canadian home price index. It will go head-to-head with the country’s two main price indices, one by the Canadian Real Estate Association and another by Teranet in partnership with National Bank.
Home price indices seek to go beyond average home prices to better gauge what’s actually happening. That’s because average selling prices are easily distorted. For example, a higher number of sales in a pricier neighbourhood causes them to rise, while more sales of condos – as opposed to detached homes – can cause them to fall.
David Lacey, chief executive officer of Brookfield RPS, had been looking for ways to make use of the company’s information since joining the firm.
So it created one. The public version includes data on 13 cities. The private version, which banks and other corporations pay for, covers the entire Canadian market and is broken down into 1,000 cities and towns plus 1,500 other neighbourhoods.
