We’ve stressed this before, but it’s worth repeating: talking about a single “Canadian” housing market doesn’t make a lot of sense because there is so much variation from one part of the country to the next.

The latest numbers on home prices from the Canadian Real Estate Association highlight these variations.

As of March, the price of a benchmark* home on the resale market in Canada was  $702,800, down 1.9% from 12 months earlier.

It was a very different story in, for example, Quebec City where the price of a benchmark home was up by 18.5% on a year-over-year (y/y) basis.

Conversely, if you were buying or selling a home in the Bancroft region of Ontario (about halfway between Toronto and Ottawa, the price of a benchmark home was 11.5% lower y/y.

There are many possible reasons for the diversity in price growth, but one we have identified is what we call the chasing affordability factor: as Canadians seek out less expensive housing, relatively cheaper markets see a rise in demand that pushes up prices. Quebec City, for example, is a less expensive market than Montreal and has seen a larger rise in prices.

In Alberta, price growth in March was strong in Edmonton with the cost of a benchmark home up by 12.6% y/y compared to 1.7% in Calgary. As per the chasing affordability factor, Edmonton is the relatively less expensive of the two markets with a benchmark home selling for $427,200 in March versus $581,100 in Calgary.

But, just as we have to be careful not to overgeneralize when thinking about a “Canadian” housing market, it is important to remember that prices and price growth can vary significantly within cities. With that said, the overall direction in both Calgary and Edmonton has been toward higher prices with y/y growth for 54 months in a row in Calgary and 18 in Edmonton.

*The Canadian Real Estate Association calculates the average price of benchmark homes in various markets (including Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton) using the MLS® Home Price Index (HPI). The HPI is based on the value home buyers assign to various housing attributes, which tend to evolve gradually over time. It therefore provides an “apples to apples” comparison of home prices across the entire country. Each month, the HPI uses more than 15 years of MLS® System data and sophisticated statistical models to define a “typical” home based on the features of homes that have been bought and sold. These benchmark homes are tracked across Canadian neighbourhoods and different types of houses.

Answer to the previous trivia question: There are 37 federal electoral districts in Alberta.

Today’s trivia question: How many political parties are registered with Elections Canada?