The Canadian Real Estate Association says the national average home price hit a record $816,720 in February, as supply slowly started to return to the market and sales activity picked up.
The association says the average price was up by 20.6 per cent from $677,435 last year, but if the Greater Vancouver and Toronto areas are cut from the calculation, the average drops by about $178,000.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the average price totalled roughly $795,000, up by about two per cent from approximately $777,000 the month before.
The shift in prices came as February’s seasonally-adjusted home sales ticked up by 4.6 per cent to 58,209 last month from 55,654 in January.
Non-seasonally-adjusted sales totalled 49,403 in February, a more than 8 per cent fall from 53,806 during the same month last year.
The association attributed the monthly increase in sales activity to a rebound in new listings, which climbed by more than 23 per cent on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 77,352 last month from 62,539 in January.
On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, listings reached 69,744, a roughly one per cent hike from 68,981 the prior February.