Average home price fell to $455,000 in January

OTTAWA• This year began with the weakest January for residential property sales since 2015, with the number of transactions down four per cent nationally from last year, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday.

Just under 23,970 properties were sold through the Multiple Listing Service in January, down from nearly 24,980 a year earlier, the association said in a regular monthly report.

The national average price for all types of residential properties sold in January was $455,000, down 5.5 per cent from the same month in 2018, the biggest year-overyear decline for a month since last May.

Meanwhile the MLS house price index, which adjusts for differing property types, was up a slight 0.8 per cent, the smallest increase since last June.

“Apartment units recorded the largest y-o-y price increase in January (plus 3.3), followed by townhouse/row units (plus 1.5). By comparison, two-storey single-family home prices were little changed (plus 0.1) while onestorey single- family home prices edged down ( minus 1.1),” the CREA report said.

Housing market conditions vary widely depending on the region. The index was up in Toronto, Montreal and Victoria, but “it’s clear that housing market conditions remain weaker in the Prairie region and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia,” CREA chief economist Gregory Klump said.