House prices decline for first time in nine years in June: MLS data

House prices in Canada had their first monthly year-over-year decline in more than nine years in June, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Tuesday.

Gregory Klump, the association’s chief economist, says the price decline was the first since January, 1999 and reflects a slumping economy and the huge runup in prices in recent years in Alberta’s energy-based economy.

In June, the major market MLS residential average price edged down 0.4 per cent year-over-year to $341,096, says the association as it released its latest Multiple Listing Service statistics.

Klump says the slight decline in average price comparison reflects the impact the surge in average price in Calgary and Edmonton had last year.

The real estate group says the average price in these markets retreated after rising dramatically last year, but has stabilized since March this year in line with a balanced market.

Source: The Canadian Press

Around the News:

• House prices hit brakes - The Globe and Mail
  The cooling housing market took on a decided chill in June, when the average price of a resale home declined for the first time in more than nine years.News of the pullback in home prices came shortly after the Bank of Canada announced it would stand pat on interest rates, and it removes one potential factor that could have prompted a rate increase later this year, said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.
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