Thursday, January 28, 2010

Canada resale home price index up for 7th month

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian home resale prices rose for a seventh straight month in November on gains in all six major metropolitan markets surveyed, according to a report on Wednesday.

The Teranet-National Bank composite house price index, which measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed overall prices were up 0.8 percent in November from October.

Vancouver led the gains, rising 1.9 percent, the only market to exceed the national average. Without Vancouver, the composite index would have been up 0.5 percent, the report said.

Toronto and Calgary both recorded gains of 0.6 percent in November, followed by 0.4 percent increases in each of Halifax and Ottawa. Montreal posted the smallest rise, up 0.1 percent.

"Except for Vancouver, monthly price increases slowed to more sustainable levels in each of the metropolitan regions," said Marc Pinsonneault, a senior economist at National Bank Financial.

Teranet's year-over-year national measure showed prices were up 2.6 percent. The year-over-year data showed all the cities except Calgary climbed.

The report is in line with other data that has shown the housing sector has momentum and is leading the fragile economy out from its downturn.

The Teranet-National index tracks home prices over time for repeat sales, so properties with at least two sales are required in the calculations. The report did not provide actual prices.

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Rob Wilson)

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