Canadian home prices in January were down 2.4 per cent from a year earlier while Calgary showed an 8.2 per cent decline, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The Teranet-National Bank composite house price Index reveals the deepening home-price deflation that began last February.
“It confirms that in early 2009, after more than five years of seller’s market conditions, Canadian housing as a whole was a buyer’s market,” said the report by Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist with the National Bank Financial Group, adding January was also the fifth straight month in which the composite index was down from the month before.

The report said of six city indexes, three were down from a year earlier, including Calgary, Vancouver at 4.2 per cent and Toronto at 2.4 per cent. Montreal was up by 4.1 per cent followed by Ottawa at 2.1 per cent and Halifax at 1.2 per cent.

Calgary’s price decline from the peak was 11.4 per cent. Its monthly decline from December is 2.3 per cent.