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New Housing Price Index, February 2022

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Released: 2022-03-18

New Housing Price Index — Canada

February 2022

1.1% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — N.L.

February 2022

0.0%

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — P.E.I.

February 2022

0.0%

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — N.S.

February 2022

0.0%

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — N.B.

February 2022

2.1% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — Que.

February 2022

1.3% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — Ont.

February 2022

0.6% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — Man.

February 2022

1.0% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — Sask.

February 2022

0.3% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — Alta.

February 2022

3.3% increase

(monthly change)

New Housing Price Index — B.C.

February 2022

0.6% increase

(monthly change)

National overview

In February, new home prices in Canada grew 1.1%. From January to February, prices rose in 18 of the 27 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) surveyed and were unchanged in 9.

Chart 1  Chart 1: New Housing Price Index
New Housing Price Index

Construction costs rising throughout Canada

New home builders in Canada continued to see increases in their construction costs for material and labour in February. Softwood lumber once again saw large gains in market value, having increased 15.0% in January, following a 31.8% rise in December 2021. In addition to the price increase for the softwood lumber component of the Industrial Product Price Index, recent price gains have been observed for many other materials used in the construction of new homes, such as furniture and fixtures, as well as cement, glass and other non-metallic mineral products.

Rising demand in Alberta keeps pushing up new home prices in February

Calgary (+3.8%) reported the largest monthly increase for new home prices in February. According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, new listings of single-family detached homes rose markedly, and sales activity reached a record high between January and February. While new listings went up, Calgary had not seen housing market conditions this tight in over 15 years. However, homes in this city remained relatively affordable compared with other cities in the country, encouraging migration from other provinces into Alberta. Both factors contributed to the upward price pressures of new and resale homes.

Edmonton also recorded a rise in new home prices for the month of February (+2.7%). The Realtors Association of Edmonton reported that this CMA saw large increases in month-over-month activity for listings and sales of single-family detached homes in February.

New home prices continued to increase in the city of Québec (+2.9%) in February. Prices have risen 7.0% since August 2021 in this city. The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers reported that activity and price levels in the region remained significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, while inventory remained low.

Year-over-year prices continue to rise across the country

Nationally, new home prices rose 10.9% year over year in February. Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo (+25.1%) reported the greatest year-over-year increase, followed by Winnipeg (+21.5%) and Windsor (+20.7%).

Chart 2  Chart 2: New house prices rise at the national level
New house prices rise at the national level


  Note to readers

In addition to this monthly release, the New Housing Price Index (NHPI) has also been integrated into the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) (see "Methodology of the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI)"). The RPPI is a quarterly series that measures changes over time in the prices of residential properties in Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. An aggregate for these six census metropolitan areas (CMAs) is also available. The RPPI provides a price index for all components of the housing real estate market—new and resale—in addition to a breakdown between houses and condominium apartments.

The 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 CMAs.

The index is not subject to revision and is not seasonally adjusted.

Products

The article "The resilience and strength of the new housing market during the pandemic" examines the changes in new home prices in Canada for the 27 surveyed CMAs captured in the NHPI. It compares the ranking of cities based on home prices six months into the pandemic (August 2020 compared with February 2020).

The article "Price trends and outlook in key Canadian housing markets" looks at where the housing market was at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, sheds light on what has happened since then and explores the challenges of the Canadian market going forward.

The infographic "The impact of COVID-19 on Key Housing Markets," part of the series Statistics Canada—Infographics (Catalogue number11-627-M), is available. It provides an outlook on the housing market before, during and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 provides an introduction to 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 March will be released on April 20.

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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