The cost of buying a newly built home in Winnipeg rose at one of the fastest paces in the country in October, Statistics Canada said today.
The agency said the new housing price index for the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area was up 0.5 per cent from September to October.
That was the second-biggest monthly increase among the 21 metropolitan regions surveyed. Hamilton saw the biggest gain, at 0.8 per cent, while Canada’s increase was 0.2 per cent.
Statistics Canada said local homebuilders blamed the price hike on the escalating cost of building materials and labour.
The figures also show Winnipeg had the second highest year-over-year increase in new-home prices, at 3.9 per cent. The only metropolitan region with a bigger 12-month price increase was Toronto/Oshawa, at 4.9 per cent.
The national average increase for the same one-year period was 2.4 per cent.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
