Canada's national average house price is set to creep even higher this year, with realtors predicting it will top $300,000 for the first time ever.
Royal LePage Real Estate Services forecasted on Thursday that the national average price will rise 9.5 per cent to $303,300.
"It is almost right across the board that we're seeing very strong interest in buying homes," Royal LePage President Phil Soper told Â鶹´«Ã½net Thursday.
The forecast said the market is demonstrating "astounding momentum."
Robust conditions are expected to continue through to the end of 2007, following a strong second quarter. And home sale transactions are expected to rise by 8 per cent to 522,306 units by the end of the year.
"The price increases we're seeing in places like Edmonton -- which are pushing 50 per cent year-over-year -- colour the numbers," said Soper. "But, in fact, prices have risen in Central Canada by about 5 per cent year-over-year and utility prices and some other prices have remained stable so affordability, relative to income, has actually improved in Central Canada."
In both Regina and Saskatoon, the second quarter saw a record number of homes sold -- based largely on the return of Saskatchewan residents fed up with the high cost of living in Alberta.
"The same reason they flee Toronto for London or Kitchener, they're fleeing Calgary for Saskatoon," Soper told The Canadian Press.
"Things like traffic and pollution are driving them nuts."
The average price of a family home in Calgary is just shy of half a million dollars, at $496,000 in June and $465,678 in the second quarter of 2007.
House prices have soared 23.9 per cent in Calgary over the same time in 2006. But that doesn't compare to Edmonton, which has seen a 47.4 per cent jump, despite a lower average cost of $397,857 over the past three months.
People travelling to Alberta for jobs are now starting to consider Saskatoon instead, said Soper.
"It's made the relative cost of living in a city like Saskatoon very appealing," he said, while allowing that the market will start to level off eventually.
"The price hikes in Saskatoon, and to a less degree, Regina, are experiencing, are completely unsustainable."
Business News Network's Linda Sims also said Thursday that the number of building permits issued in Canada last month jumped by 21 per cent, driven largely by the booming construction industries in Calgary and Vancouver.
With files from The Canadian Press
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