House Values Remain Stable Despite Poor Economy - Local Housing Starts up 22% in 2010

A Statistics Canada report shows that Canada's new housing price index rose 0.3 per cent in November after a 0.1 per cent advance in October.

Statistics Canada said prices increased the most in St. John's, N.L. (up 4.2 per cent), followed by Ottawa-Gatineau (1.6) and Halifax (1.2).

Year-over-year, the new housing price index was up 2.3 per cent in November after a 2.5 per cent increase in October.

With the annual inflation rate for 2010 sitting at 2%, we see that, overall, home values have remained consistent and even slightly outpaced inflation - proving once again that real estate is a good hedge against inflation.

We are still early on in our economic recovery, but the "housing bubble" everyone was concerned about failed to materialize...if anything, home values consistently justify why Canada has such a high rate of home ownership (nearly 70%).

Locally, CMHC reported that housing starts in Waterloo Region increased 22.5% in 2010 over the total in 2009.