"The boom in the housing markets is definitely over," Tsur Somerville, a professor in the Sauder School of Business at University of British Columbia said in an interview with The Star. "Depending on where you live, you can likely expect prices to fall further."

Canadian housing prices are decelerating quickly with the steepest decline in more than a decade, The Star reported. Analysts say homeowners in some regions should prepare for further depreciation. The average price of a residential home was $316,052 in August, a year over year drop of 5.1 per cent and the most since 1996. These figures were released by the Canadian Real Estate Association. Millan Mulraine, economics strategist for TD Securities said:

"The report underscores the current shift in the Canadian housing market, as the tone of activity moves slightly closer to a buyer's market"

In August, the city of Toronto also recorded a slight 1 per cent decrease in housing prices – the first negative number in more than a decade, The Star article reads.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under Toronto real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.