In March the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price IndexTM was up 1.5% from the previous month, a sharp acceleration from the February increase of 0.5%. The advance was led by three of the 11 constituent markets: Halifax (3.3%), Hamilton (2.8%) and Toronto (1.9%). The rise for Vancouver matched the 1.5% of the composite index. Rises were more moderate for Winnipeg (1.1%), Ottawa-Gatineau (1.1%), Montreal (1.1%), Victoria (1.0%), Calgary (0.9%), Quebec City (0.9%) and Edmonton (0.3%). It was the first time since last November that all 11 markets of the composite index were up from the month before.

The March rise was consistent with the increase in the number of home sales over the last several months as reported by the Canadian Real Estate Association. For a seventh straight month, the number of sale pairs entering into the 11 metropolitan indexes was higher than a year earlier. The unsmoothed composite index, seasonally adjusted, was up 2.7% in March, suggesting that the uptrend of the published (smoothed) index could continue.

The March composite index was up 10.8% from a year earlier, for an eighth consecutive acceleration and the strongest 12-month gain since September 2017. It was led by five markets – Halifax (22.5%), Hamilton (20.9%), Ottawa-Gatineau (19.0%), Montreal (16.1%) and Toronto (11.2%). Lagging the countrywide average were Victoria (10.5%), Quebec City (8.1%), Vancouver (7.9%), Winnipeg (7.8%), Edmonton (2.9%) and Calgary (1.8%).

Besides the Toronto and Hamilton indexes included in the countrywide composite, indexes exist for seven smaller urban areas of the Golden Horseshoe – Barrie, Guelph, Brantford, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Oshawa and Peterborough. In March all seven were up from the previous month and from a year earlier. The 12-month gains ranged from 20.8% for Kitchener to 24.9% for Oshawa.