Average Canadian house prices will fall by another 3 per cent in 2009, but the drop will add up to a “correction,” not the sort of “crash” that has crushed the U.S. market, real estate brokerage Royal LePage Real Estate Services said Tuesday.
Nationally, the average house price will fall to $295,000, from a projected level of $304,000 for 2008, the Toronto-based firm forecast. This follows a 1.1-per-cent dip last year from $307,265 in 2007.
Royal LePage also is betting that that the number of houses sold across the country this year will fall by 3.5 per cent to 416,000, although it expects to see both price and activity gains in several markets, including Regina and Winnipeg, where prices remain below the national average.
But price increases of 6 per cent and 4 per cent the firm is forecasting for the two prairie cities – bringing the average up to $243,300 and $204,900, respectively – will be a mere shadow of the 38.6 per cent and 20.5 per cent gains they saw last year.
