According to Statistics Canada’s monthly new housing price index, the cost of a newly-built home in June fell in most large metro areas on a year-over-year (y/y) basis.

Calgary was the only major city west of Quebec in positive territory with y/y price growth of 1.0%. We don’t have the numbers in yet, but extremely strong population growth in the Calgary area over the last year is likely a key reason behind the increase.

Compared to June 2022, prices were up in only 6 of the 27 CMAs surveyed in June 2023, down in 20, and unchanged in one.

The cooling off of new house prices in most large cities comes after a sustained period of rapid escalation that began in 2020.

The Québec Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) posted the largest y/y increase at 3.7% while Edmonton saw the largest decrease, down 3.3% from 12 months earlier.

This was the largest y/y decline in Edmonton’s index since February 2010.

The national new housing price index, meanwhile, pulled back by 0.7%.

On a month-over-month basis, the average price of a new home in Calgary edged up by 0.6% in June to an all-time high.

In Edmonton, the average price in June was down by 1.0% compared to May and 3.3% below the peak index readings observed in June 2022 and September 2022.

Spillover effects from relatively high levels of inventory and sluggish sales in Edmonton’s resale market are probably factors here. As of June, Edmonton was sitting on 2.6 months of resale supply compared to 1.1 months in Calgary.

Year-over-year sales were, moreover, down in Edmonton in June by 1% while sales in Calgary were up by 11%. (See the Alberta Real Estate Association’s June statistics report for more information.)

Answer to the previous trivia question: China is the world’s largest producer of wheat at 134.3 million tonnes in 2020 or about 17% of global production. Canada produced 4.6% of the world’s wheat that same year.

Today’s trivia question: What was the value of new residential construction in Alberta in May 2023 (the most recent month for which data are available)?