Canadian housing prices up for fourth straight month but still down from peak

[Source - Kim Covert, Financial Post Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009]

Canadian home prices are on the road to recovery, but still haven't rebounded to pre-recession levels, according to a survey that shows while prices rose in August they are still down 3.4% from their peak in August 2008. The Teranet-National Bank house price index, which measures resale prices in six urban markets across Canada, shows that housing prices nationally rose by 2% in August, the fourth straight month-over-month increase. It was also the second month in a row that prices were up in all of the six markets. "This turnaround is consistent with an improvement in market conditions in the first half of 2009 --more homes have been selling and fewer have been coming on the market," said Marc Pinsonneault, a senior economist with National Bank Financial Group. In Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa, resale prices are actually higher now than they were at their pre-recession peak a year ago.