New home prices in Calgary and Edmonton fell year-over-year in March, according to data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada in its New Housing Price Index.
The federal agency said prices were down 2.0 per cent in the Calgary census metropolitan area while they fell 1.2 per cent in the Edmonton census metropolitan area.
Nationally, prices rose by 0.9 per cent from a year ago.
On a monthly basis, prices nationally were up by 0.3 per cent. They also rose in Edmonton by 0.3 per cent but fell in Calgary by 0.2 per cent.
“COVID-19 had no known impact on new house prices in March, as the outbreak was declared a pandemic on March 11, toward the end of the reference period for the New Housing Price Survey. Builders across the country were still operating normally and all of their home sales centres were open during the reference period (February 16 to March 15),” explained the federal agency.
“In March, new house prices fell the most year over year in Regina (-4.2 per cent) and Calgary (-2.0 per cent). Annual price movements have been negative since February 2018 in Regina and since July 2018 in Calgary.”
StatsCan said it anticipates that, in the short term, the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the new housing market will not be as pronounced as the ones expected on the resale market.
“New homes are purchased predominantly one to three years in advance of the closing date. In most instances, the transaction occurs before the construction even begins. In the short term, we expect little or no change in new house prices, especially for the markets where the demand was already high prior to COVID-19,” it explained.
“The hot housing markets, where the inventory of available homes is low, will fare better than already weak markets, where supply is abundant but demand is worsening.”
