February marked a slowdown in the growth of the cost of new housing in Canada, according to a Statistics Canada report released on Friday.
Prices of new houses were 6.2 per cent higher this February versus February 2007, but that was less than the 6.5 per cent year-to-year increase reported in January.
Between January and February, prices of new houses rose by 0.3 per cent.
However, Saskatchewan experienced robust growth in the cost of new housing, with an annual increase in Saskatoon of 58.3 per cent. Between January and February, prices rose by 4.3 per cent.
Regina's annual increase was 28.6 per cent, up from the annual rate of 25.9 per cent reported in January. Prices rose by 7 per cent between January and February.
The StatsCan report attributed Saskatchewan's strong new housing market to a healthy natural resources industry, as well as to government efforts to attract migrants to the province.
Growth was also strong on the East Coast. Compared to last year, prices rose in St. John's by 12.2 per cent, while prices rose in Halifax by 11.4 per cent.
And for the first time in more than a year, Windsor experienced growth over last year, as prices rose 0.3 per cent.
However the market has slowed in once-booming Alberta, as people move out of the province.
In Calgary, the year-to-year increase was 5.2 per cent, while prices were down 0.3 per cent compared to January.
Edmonton experienced a 14.8 per cent annual growth rate, which marked the seventh consecutive month of slowing growth. Prices fell 0.9 per cent from January.
Over last year, new housing costs in other major Canadian markets increased by:
- 6.6 per cent in Vancouver and 1.6 per cent in Victoria
- 4.4 per cent in Toronto and Oshawa
- 3.3 per cent in Ottawa-Gatineau
- 4.7 per cent in Montreal
