There was not much of a shakeup in home prices in this country in May.
The price of new houses in Canada rose by 0.1% from April, slightly less than expected but extending a string of increases to 26 months, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.
It followed a 0.2% rise in April, and was just below the median forecast of analysts surveyed by Reuters of a 0.2% rise in May.
The data showed the anomaly of the house and land components each rising 0.2% while the overall increase was 0.1 percent. This was due to rounding, the nation's number crunchers said.
The annual increase fell to 1.8% in May from 2% in April.
The Canadian government imposed tighter mortgage rules a year ago, and while financial authorities have said there were still signs that values were stretched in some areas, there had been a constructive evolution of the housing market.
While the new housing price increases have been relatively tame, the index excludes condominiums, which have been of particular concern to policymakers.
