Canada - House Price Index for New Homes





Canada: House Price Index for New Homes

Mnemonic HPIN.ICAN
Unit Index Dec2016=100, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly 0.08 %
Data Jan 2024 124.3
Dec 2023 124.4

Series Information

Source Statistics Canada
Release New Housing Price Index (CANSIM)
Frequency Monthly
Start Date 1/31/1981
End Date 1/31/2024

Canada: Real Estate

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Housing Starts Feb 2024 253.47 223.18 Ths. #, SAAR Monthly
Building Permits Jan 2024 10,775,504 9,495,985 Ths. CAD, SA Monthly
House Price Index Jan 2024 124.73 124.99 Index Dec2016=100, SA Monthly
House Price Index for New Homes Jan 2024 124.3 124.4 Index Dec2016=100, NSA Monthly
House Price Value for Existing Homes Jan 2024 299.84 300.68 Index Jun2005=100, NSA Monthly
Residential Building Permits Jan 2024 19,190 17,063 #, SA Monthly
Building Completions 2022 Q4 56,690 58,114 #, NSA Quarterly

Release Information

For Canada, the New Housing Price Index (NHPI) measures changes over time in the contractors' selling prices of new residential houses. The survey also collects contractors' estimates of the current value (evaluated at market price) of the land. These estimates are independently indexed to provide the published series for land. The residual, (total selling price less land value), which mainly relates to the current cost of the structure is also independently indexed and is presented as the estimated house series.

Active:

  • Measurement: Fixed-base index relative to December 2016 (Index Dec2016=100)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start date: As early as 1981m1
  • Geo coverage:
    • Country
    • Province (10x ICAN_^^)
    • CMA (22x ICAN_M^^^)
    • CA (4x ICAN_^^^)
    • Prairie Region (ICAN_PRAI)

Predecessors:

  • 2007=100 - 1981m1 to 2016m12 ("_07")
  • 1997=100 - 1981m1 to 2010m11 ("97")

The source writes:

Target population

For the NHPI, the universe consists of builders in 21 metropolitan areas who mainly build single unit houses in such volume or in such a fashion that they can report selling prices for comparable transactions.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a longitudinal design. The sample of builders for each metropolitan area is determined through the use of local market intelligence and verified against relevant building permit data. Where possible, prices are collected from builders who develop entire subdivisions, usually on large tracts of land. However, builders producing fewer units are frequently included where comparable models can be priced over a period of time. The sample for a given builder is structured in such a way that the price changes of the sample are representative of the price changes of the builder's total sales of housing units.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory. Data are collected directly from survey respondents and derived from other surveys. The collection of house model and price information is conducted through the use of personal interviews carried out by interviewers who are based in the regional offices of Statistics Canada. Face-to-face interviews are conducted quarterly while telephone interviews are used in the intervening months.

Prices

Through discussion with the builders, models are selected and tracked which are identified as representative of the current construction portfolio of each builder. In addition to pricing data, detailed information is obtained describing physical and non-physical characteristics of each model home. This is considered to be an important data source which assists the assessment of quality changes in terms of dollars and cents. In the new housing price survey reported prices are adjusted for changes in quality of structure and land. This is important because the NHPI attempts to measure changes in price over time of identical houses in consecutive periods. Most often the estimate of the value of the quality change provided by the respondent is used to adjust the reported price to an estimate of "pure" price, unaffected by quality change.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For all series, we construct seasonally adjusted counterparts. For the Oshawa geo (ICAN_MOHW), we back-extend prior to December 2016.

Data is final when initially published and not generally subject to revision. 

Data is subject to ND datapoint where confidentiality laws prohibit the source from releasing data. 

Previously, the geo code for Toronto and Oshawa, Ontario was ICAN_MTRN. It has been recoded to ICAN_TRO to be more in line with the geographic definition presented by the source.

The HPI for the Ottawa-Gatnieau CMA has been calculated using the weighted average of its component series beginning in the year 2017.

End User License Agreement

Distributed under license from Statistics Canada: usage subject to an End User License.

  • 7 Mar 2023, Phillip Thorne - Properties, Moody's Analytics supplements.