Canada's national housing agency is warning of "problematic housing market conditions" in most of the country's major housing markets.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said in its Housing Market Assessment report on Thursday that many housing markets are showing troubling signs in four criteria: Overheated home sales; Too many homes being built; Prices increasing too quickly; High prices.
When all four factors are taken together, the agency singled out four cities for being particularly troubling: Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg and Toronto.
While those four cities gave the housing agency the most concern overall, overvaluation was called widespread.
It was cited as either a "moderate" or a "strong" problem in 11 of the 15 cities the CMHC includes in its assessment, including Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Moncton, St. John's and Halifax.
The four cities where the CMHC said overvaluation isn't a problem are Victoria, Hamilton, Moncton and St. John's.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported that the average Canadian home sold in September went for $433,649, a figure that has risen by 6% in the previous 12 months.
But the Realtor group said most of the gains in the national figure are coming from Toronto and Vancouver. Outside of those two cities, house prices have appreciated by less than 3% in the past year, the association said.
