Canada’s housing market correction ended the year with the first year-over-year decline for quarterly home prices in more than a decade, according to a new report from Royal LePage. But the brokerage is also arguing in a report released that headline-grabbing downturns through 2022 have been, in some regards, overblown.
The report showed the aggregate price of a home in the fourth quarter of 2022 was $757,100, down 2.8 percent compared with the same months a year earlier.
That marks the first year-over-year decline in home prices for any quarter since 2008, according to the brokerage when the housing market in Canada faced a steep downturn during the global financial crisis. Declines were even steeper in some Canadian markets, the report showed.
In the Greater Toronto Area, the aggregate price of a home in Q4 was $1,068,500, down 4.6 percent annually. The Greater Vancouver Area, meanwhile, saw prices decline 3.5 percent year over year to $1,208,900.
Some markets, including Calgary and Montreal, saw modest price growth in the fourth quarter. Single-family homes saw price declines of 3.7 percent in the quarter, while condo prices were down 1.4 percent annually. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, Royal LePage said the national aggregate home price continued to decline for a third consecutive time, but the 2.3 percent dip in Q4 was the smallest yet. Since March 2022, rising interest rates from the Bank of Canada have rapidly cooled housing markets across the country after a flurry of activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
