OTTAWA — New home prices rose more than expected in November, posting a 0.4 per cent advance for a fifth straight monthly gain, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

Most economists had forecast a 0.3 per cent month-over-month advance.

On a yearly basis, prices fell 1.4 per cent in November following a 2.1 per cent decline in October.

The pick up in new housing prices follows news Monday from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. that housing starts staged a broad-based advance in November, rising 5.9 per cent to an annualized rate of 174,500 units. Resale prices, meanwhile, have risen 21 per cent from a year ago.

The Bank of Canada said Monday, however, that talk of a housing bubble is premature and that raising interest rates to slow the pace of rising prices would hurt the country’s economic recovery.

Of 21 metropolitan areas surveyed by Statistics Canada, only three — Hamilton, Saskatoon and Greater Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Ont. — recorded monthly declines.

The biggest gains were posted in the Ontario region of St. Catharines-Niagara, up 1.4 per cent month-over-month and Quebec, up 0.9 per cent. St. John’s, N.L., and Windsor, Ont., posted 0.7 per cent gains.

In Windsor, hard-hit in recent times by troubles in the auto industry, builders attributed higher prices to improving market conditions.


New housing price index

Percentage change, October to November 2009

Canada total: 0.4

House only: 0.5

Land only: 0.2

St. John’s, N.L.: 0.7

Charlottetown: 0

Halifax: 0.3

Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton, N.B.: 0.1

Quebec: 0.9

Montreal: 0.4

Ottawa–Gatineau: 0

Toronto and Oshawa: 0.5

Hamilton: -0.2

St. Catharines–Niagara, Ont.: 1.4

London, Ont.: 0.5

Kitchener, Ont.: 0.5

Windsor, Ont.: 0.7

Greater Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Ont.: -0.1

Winnipeg: 0.1

Regina: 0.1

Saskatoon: -0.2

Calgary: 0.4

Edmonton: 0.1

Vancouver: 0.3

Victoria: 0