Figures released Friday showed the average price of a Canadian home rose by 3% in the year up to September, even as sales during the month came in 11% lower than they were a year ago.
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said the deceleration in price gains largely reflects softening price trends in Ontario's Greater Golden Horseshoe area, which stretches around the southwestern corner of Lake Ontario
CREA went on to say that double-digit annual increases were the norm in the region throughout 2016, before a slowdown earlier this year that saw price increases slow to single digits and then briefly dip into negative territory before recovering.
While sales were down 11% from last year's level, last year saw the busiest September for home sales on record.
When discussing Canada's real estate picture, the two markets of Toronto and Vancouver get a lot of attention both because they are very large but also because they have had such outsized gains, which skewed the national numbers higher, the realtor group has long warned.
Vancouver took steps in the summer of 2016 to cool its market via a foreign buyers tax, and Toronto did the same in April 2017. Both appear to have had a cooling effect on their respective markets, although they are both at different stages in the cycles.
After an initial slowdown in the summer of 2016 after the new rules came in, Vancouver prices are now bouncing back sharply, with the average selling price in the city up more than 17% o $1,046,982.
