Canadian Real Estate Soars

Real estate prices in Canada are still rising, and fast. Provinces west of Ontario are seeing the biggest gains, with Alberta leading the way with over 30% increase over the same month last year. B.C. set a new record for average home price at over $410,000. Check out the full CBC.ca article below.

The average price of a resale home in Canada hit a record high in February, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said Monday.

The association said the average resale home sold for $294,880, based on Multiple Listing Service figures. That's an increase of 10.6 per cent from a year earlier.

Record highs were set in six provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The most expensive real estate was again found in British Columbia, where the average MLS property sold for $412,847 in February — an increase of more than $10,000 from January and up more than $43,000 from February of last year.

But the biggest increase took place in Alberta, where provincial MLS figures showed the average price of a resale home jumped 34.1 per cent to $343,515. Put another way, the average Alberta homeowner saw their worth grow by $87,390 in the last year (at least, on paper) simply by living in their homes.

Smaller double-digit increases were also seen in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But from Ontario east, the gains were all in the single digits.

"Recent mortgage interest cuts, together with a strong job market and rising incomes will keep home buyer sentiment upbeat and could make the spring home buying season one for the record books," CREA chief economist Greg Klump said in a statement.

CREA had released a preliminary price survey three weeks ago that foreshadowed Monday's announcement. That survey showed that resale prices in many of Canada's major cities had set a record in February.