New Housing Price Index, October 2022
Released: 2022-11-22
October 2022
-0.2% 
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.0%
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.0%
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.0%
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.0%
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.4% 
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.0%
(monthly change)
October 2022
-0.7%
(monthly change)
October 2022
0.0%
(monthly change)
October 2022
-0.3%
(monthly change)
October 2022
-0.7%
(monthly change)
National overview
New home prices in Canada declined by 0.2% month over month in October, following the 0.1% decline recorded in the previous month. Prices were up in 5 of the 27 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) surveyed, down in 7 of them, and unchanged in the remaining 15. This was the first consecutive monthly decrease in the index since July 2019.
Chart 1
New Housing Price Index
Decreased demand and replenishing of supply put downward pressure on prices
Since March 2022, the Bank of Canada has increased the policy interest rate six times, bringing it to 3.75% in October. These higher interest rates have continued to reduce the number of buyers in the housing market, with some builders citing bad market conditions as the reason for the decline in the prices of new houses.
In October, new home prices decreased the most in Vancouver (-0.8%), the first recorded decrease in this CMA since June 2021. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, a near-historic low in the number of resale home sales in Vancouver, combined with increases in the number of active listings, has placed downward pressure on home prices.
Winnipeg recorded the second-largest decrease of new home prices in October (-0.7%), its first decrease since May 2020. Similar to Vancouver, the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board observed a large decline in resale home sales in October 2022, compared with the same month a year before: the number of sales was comparable to pre-pandemic Octobers, indicating a lower demand for housing.
Prices for new homes also declined in Edmonton (-0.6%), the largest decrease observed in the CMA since July 2019.
Increased construction costs continue to impact some census metropolitan areas
Montréal and Québec recorded the largest price increases for new homes (both +0.4%) among the 27 CMAs surveyed in October. Builders in Montréal cited an increase in construction costs as the key driver of new home price growth. The cost to construct a single-detached house or townhouse in Montréal has risen 4.9% and 4.7%, respectively, since the beginning of 2022, largely because of continued labour shortages.
Price increases were also observed in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (+0.3%), Saskatoon (+0.2%), and Ottawa (+0.1%) in October.
Chart 2
New house prices decline at the national level
Year-over-year price growth continues to decelerate
Nationally, new home prices increased by 5.1% on a year-over-year basis, decelerating for the seventh consecutive month. This increase is less than half of the year-over-year growth recorded in October 2021.
Calgary (+14.1%) recorded the largest year-over-year gain in new home prices in October 2022, followed by Winnipeg (+10.6%) and Québec (+7.5%).
Note to readers
The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) measures changes over time in the selling prices of new residential houses. The prices are those agreed upon between the contractor and the buyer at the time the contract is signed. The detailed specifications for each new house remain the same between two consecutive periods.
The prices collected from builders and included in the index are market selling prices less value-added taxes, such as the federal goods and services tax and the provincial harmonized sales tax.
The survey covers the following dwelling types: new single homes, semi-detached homes and townhomes (row or garden homes). The index is available at the national and provincial levels and for 27 census metropolitan areas (CMAs).
The index is not subject to revision and is not seasonally adjusted.
Products
The Technical Guide for the New Housing Price Index (NHPI) is available. This document provides details on the methodology used to calculate the NHPI.
The New Housing Price Index: Interactive Dashboard, which allows users to visualize statistics on new housing prices, is available.
The Housing Market Indicators dashboard, which provides access to key housing market indicators for Canada, by province and by CMA, is also available.
For more information on the topic of housing, visit the Housing statistics portal.
The video Producer Price Indexes is available on the Statistics Canada Training Institute webpage. It introduces Statistics Canada's Producer Price Indexes—what they are, how they are compiled and what they are used for.
Statistics Canada launched the Producer Price Indexes Portal as part of a suite of portals for prices and price indexes. It provides users with a single point of access to a wide variety of statistics and measures related to producer prices.
Next release
The New Housing Price Index for November will be released on December 16.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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