Paul Martin’s Business Update – February 13th, 2015

The price of building a new house is going down. At least that’s the case in Regina, according to a new report released by StatsCan.

This may be a pivotal indicator suggesting that we have reached a plateau in the housing market. A year ago, prices were still rising quite strongly – partly because of the cost of labor but also because of material and land costs. Now, we’re seeing that upward pressure disappear.

In Regina in December, the price of a new home was actually about a quarter-percentage point lower than a year earlier. In Saskatoon, prices were still going up but only marginally. But this is quite a contrast to a year ago when we were seeing the biggest increases in the nation.

This change, however, sees Regina join a handful of cities in the country where new home construction costs were in negative territory. Vancouver and Victoria were there along with Montreal and Ottawa as well as the bulk of the major cities in the Maritimes.

#wetellyourstories http://martincharlton.ca/?p=1108