MNI CANADA IMPACT: New Home Prices in Longest Decline Since 2009>

By Greg Quinn and Anahita Alinejad

     OTTAWA (MNI) - New home prices in Canada declined for a 

third straight month in July to mark the longest losing streak 

since 2009 around the time of the last recession.

     Statistics Canada's price index fell by 0.1%, matching the declines 

in June and May. Prices also fell by the most in about a decade on a 

12-month basis, declining by 0.4%. 

     The largest monthly decrease came in Edmonton, the city 

struggling with low and volatile prices for Alberta's heavy crude 

oil, where prices dropped 0.8%. 

     Toronto and Vancouver, the focus of concern about a housing 

correction, also saw some of the biggest monthly declines in a decade. 

Prices fell 0.6% in July in Toronto, Canada's biggest city, and by 0.5% 

in Vancouver.

     Government officials have sought to engineer a soft landing in the 

housing market to avoid a U.S.-style bust after annual housing price 

gains in Vancouver and Toronto surged to more than 30% a few years ago. 

Homebuilders and buyers have complained that tougher mortgage lending 

rules imposed last year were driving good buyers out of the market.

     Housing is a hot topic for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he 

called an election yesterday for Oct. 21. Trudeau and Conservative 

Leader Andrew Scheer are appealing to middle-class voters who are 

struggling to buy homes that often cost a million dollars in Vancouver 

and Toronto. 

     The report covers single-family homes and some semi-detached 

properties like row houses, but doesn't track condominiums that have 

been a major source of growth in Vancouver and Toronto. Statistics 

Canada yesterday published "experimental" figures showing condo prices 

fell 0.1% in the second quarter, and said more regular figures should be 

ready later this year.

--MNI Ottawa Bureau; +1-613-314-9647; greg.quinn@marketnews.com

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