Significant home price increases reported in 4 Canadian cities

While most cities continue to see home price declines, there are four cities in Canada that are bucking the trend.

Home prices continue to be lower than a few years ago.

In June, the national Real Property Solutions-Wahi House Price Index declined by three per cent on a year-over-year basis, the real estate companies said.

The index is based on the latest monthly actual home values in 1,000 towns and cities across the country.

June’s index represents a slight pullback from May’s pace of depreciation (-4 per cent) but is generally consistent with what has been observed in the first half of the year, Wahi said.

Despite a relatively friendly interest rate environment, the Canadian housing market continued to sputter throughout the spring — and into the summer, Wahi said in the report.

“With interest rates low and stable for some time now, a broader market turnaround may have been expected, but it seems that economic uncertainty is keeping more homebuyers on the sidelines,” said RPS-Wahi economist Ryan McLaughlin.

Although most of the country is seeing price declines year-over-year, there are a few outliers.

Among the 13 major metro areas that RPS analyzes each month, four are seeing “significant price increases.”

Quebec City (10 per cent increase) has been leading all big cities for price growth since September of 2024, when it overtook the then-piping-hot Calgary market.

Montreal (seven per cent) was second in terms of annual price growth in June, while Saskatoon and Winnipeg placed third, with five per cent year-over-year gains in each, the report noted.

These markets all boast relative affordability but are facing supply challenges, Wahi noted.

Markets in B.C. and Ontario account for the sharpest declines and continue to weigh on the national index, the report found.

The Greater Toronto Area’s condo correction is of a magnitude larger than Vancouver’s. This at least partly explains why prices are falling more rapidly in metro Toronto (nine per cent) than in metro Vancouver (five per cent) on a year-over-year basis.

See the full report here.