New housing price index up 0.3 per cent in January: StatsCan

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

For sale signs stand in front of a condo September 27, 2011 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says its new housing price index rose 0.3 per cent in January, following a 0.1 per cent gain in December.

It says the national increase was the largest since May 2012 and was mainly due to strong gains in the Prairie region.

Metropolitan Calgary was the top contributor to the January rise, with prices up 1.3 per cent, the largest increase since April 2007.

The biggest monthly price gain in January was in Saskatoon, where prices were up 1.4 per cent, the largest monthly increase in the city since March 2008.

Prices were down 0.3 per cent in the Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo region for the second consecutive month and new house prices also fell 0.3 per cent in Charlottetown.

Prices were unchanged in seven of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed in January.