Canadian home prices have jumped 21.4 per cent since last year, survey finds

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A new survey from the real estate firm Royal LePage shows that housing prices in Canada have jumped an astounding 21.4 per cent since this time last year.

The Royal LePage House Price Survey, released on Friday, shows that the aggregate price of a home in Canada has risen to $749,800 in the third quarter of 2021, compared to $617,800 in the third quarter of 2020.

The aggregate price refers to a “weighted average of the median values” of both condominiums and single-family homes for a given area.

During the third quarter, housing sales also slowed down, largely due to waning supply and demand, coupled with lessening pandemic restrictions, Royal LePage notes.

“With easing pandemic restrictions, there was finally something to talk about other than real estate, and people began travelling and socializing again,” Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage, said in news release.

“In addition, a year of relentless competition for too few properties drove some would-be purchasers to the sidelines as buyer fatigue set in. Yet their fundamental need or desire for a new home remains and we are seeing pent-up demand grow. We expect another unusually busy winter season building to a brisk 2022 spring market.”

When broken down by housing type, the median price of a single-family detached home rose 25.2 per cent, while the median price of a condo rose 13 per cent.

When it comes to regional housing prices, each of the major Canadian cities and their surrounding areas saw a jump in home prices, with the biggest jumps coming in Greater Vancouver (20.8) and Ottawa (20.7).

“Vancouver and the surrounding greater region remains firmly in a seller’s market,” said Randy Ryalls, general manager, Royal LePage Sterling Realty in Vancouver.

“Although activity showed signs of slowing modestly in the summer and early days of September, the market has picked up again, now that families are back in their usual routines.”

Of the 62 Canadian cities included in the survey, every single one showed rising aggregate home costs, but the slowest rise in prices came out of Thunder Bay, Ont. (2 per cent), West Vancouver (3.7 per cent) and Toronto (4.8 per cent).

When it comes to the fastest-growing areas in terms of aggregate home prices, Saint John, N.B. (36.4 per cent), Kingston, Ont. (36 per cent), Belleville/Trenton, Ont. and London, Ont. (32.4 per cent) top the list.

Royal LePage is also predicting a 16-per-cent increase in aggregate home costs for the fourth quarter of 2021 when compared to last year’s fourth quarter.

“Looking back to the late spring of 2020, the Royal LePage benchmark value of a home was $580,000,” Soper said. “The subsequent ‘Covid-catalyst’ which drove legions of Canadians to upgrade their living situations, has created a period of exceptional home price growth with real estate values on track to grow 33 per cent by year end.”