TORONTO - Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper says house prices in Greater Vancouver grew 30.6 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter of the year, marking what may have been the real estate market's "final hurrah."
The real estate agency says the average house price in the region soared to $1.19 million in the three-month period that ended Sept. 30, up from $914,705 during the same quarter last year.
The average price of a home in Greater Toronto rose to $693,154 over the third quarter, up 13.6 per cent compared to last year, when the average home price was $610,308.
In Edmonton, where the decline in oil prices has hurt the real estate market, the average cost of a home was down 3.1 per cent to $374,712 from $386,829 a year ago.
Royal LePage says its national house price composite -- a figure based on 53 of the country's largest real estate markets -- showed that the average price of a home climbed 12 per cent from a year ago to $545,414 in the third quarter.
Soper says he expects that price growth in Vancouver will slow or even reverse in the months ahead as the effects of recent federal and provincial government rule changes begin to be felt.
