A leading national measure of home prices was decidedly average in September.

The Teranet-National Bank National Composite Home Price Index was flat at 226.23 (up 0.05% from August), but in line with the historical average for September since 2010.

Of the 11 metros included in the survey, five gained – Winnipeg (1.1%), Montreal (0.5%), Victoria (0.5%), Hamilton (0.2%) and Ottawa-Gatineau (0.1%) – the weakest diffusion in 6 months.

Vancouver and Edmonton indexes were flat month-over-month while there were declines for Toronto (−0.1%), Calgary (−0.1%), Halifax (−0.2%) and Quebec City (−0.6%).

Taking out seasonal effects, the index edged up in September, recovering some of the ground lost in previous months, especially in Toronto.

But for Vancouver and Calgary the seasonally adjusted indices extended a string of declines, consistent with the weakness in home sales reported by the respective real estate boards of these two metropolitan areas.

Annual rise greater than in August

On a year-over-year basis, the national index gained 2.1%, a larger gain than in August as the index began declining in September 2017.

The largest gains were in Vancouver (6.2%), Victoria (5.5%) and Halifax (4.8%) thanks to gains earlier in the year while recent advances resulted in relatively large 12-month gains in Ottawa-Gatineau (5.1%) and Montréal (4.8%).

Winnipeg (2.8%), Hamilton (1.4%) and Quebec City (0.7%) also gained but there were year-over-year declines for Edmonton (−0.5%), Toronto (−0.8%) and Calgary (−1.3%).

The indexes reflect percentage gain/decrease from a base value of 100 in June 2005