Canada’s New Housing Price Index decreased in March for the sixth straight month according to a report released today by Statistics Canada. The Canadian New Housing Price Index fell by 0.5 percent for March following a decline of 0.7 percent in February. Market forecasts were expecting the 0.5 percent decline for the month. 
On an annual basis, house prices fell by 2.4 percent in March from the March 2008 level.
The areas with the highest monthly price decreases in March were Calgary and Edmonton with each showing a 1.2 percent price decline. Other notable monthly declines were seen in Vancouver and Victoria with decreases of 1.1 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. St. John’s posted the highest monthly rate of increase in March with a 0.4 percent while Montreal and Quebec also showed house prices increases for the month.
On an annual basis, Edmonton registered the largest house price decline with a 12.3 percent fall while Saskatoon and Calgary also saw declines of 11.2 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively. Vancouver’s prices declined by 7.8 percent year-over-year while Victoria house prices fell by 6.6 percent. On the positive side, St. John’s posted an annual increase of 20.8 percent and Regina house prices climbed 12.8 percent from March 2008. Also showing notable house price increases year-over-year were Quebec with a 8.1 percent gain and Montreal which saw prices advance by 3.5 percent.
Canadian Dollar loses ground in Currency Trading.
The Canadian “loonie” dollar has been losing ground today in the currency trading. The U.S. dollar has advanced against the Canadian loonie as the USD/CAD gained from its 1.1496 opening at 00:00GMT to trading at 1.1645 at 3:48pm EST in the US session according to currency data from Oanda.
The euro has gained against the loonie as the EUR/CAD trades at the 1.5830 level after opening the day at 1.5698. The loonie has also managed to trade lower versus the Japanese yen today as the CAD/JPY has fallen to the 83.62 yen per loonie level after opening at 85.45.
The British pound has gained versus the loonie as the GBP/CAD has climbed to the 1.7617 level after opening the day at 1.7498.
The Australian dollar is higher against the loonie as the AUD/CAD pair trades at 0.8852 from today’s opening rate of 0.8825 while the New Zealand dollar has also advanced as the NZD/CAD trades at 0.7029 from 0.7012 earlier today.
USD/CAD Chart – The US Dollar advancing higher today in currency trading(15-min. Chart) versus the Canadian Dollar.
