14 February 2018

Although the national results were up for the second time since a monthly decrease in November, only 4 of the 11 large cities showed prices gains in January. And one of them was Toronto. Home prices here rose by 0.2% from December, marking the first increase since the middle of 2017.

However, National Bank economist Marc Pinsonneault believes it’s too soon to suggest the prices trend in Toronto changed direction.

“This firming of real estate prices in the largest Canadian city may be caused by a rush of numerous buyers with pre-approved mortgages as they hurried to make a purchase before stricter qualification rules for uninsured mortgages took effect on January 1,” – he noted.

In his opinion, more hikes in mortgage rates may still affect home prices in Toronto.

It should be noted that the National Bank index rising by 8.4% from a previous year remains below the national average level.

Tomorrow, we’ll see monthly real estate data from the Canadian Real Estate Association.