Higher fuel costs, along with increases in building materials and labour, pushed up the price of new homes in October, Statistics Canada said today.

StatsCan said new housing prices were up 0.7% in October, compared with September.

That’s up from a 0.6% rise in September and bigger than the 0.4% rise economists had expected.

The 12-month increase grew to 5.4% from 4.9% the previous month.
StatsCan said of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed, 15 posted monthly gains.


Land value increases contributed to price hikes in 7 of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed.

Calgary led the way for the second month in a row with a 3.4% increase, followed by Edmonton at 1.1%.

Elsewhere, the Ottawa-Gatineau, Que. area rose 0.8%, St.-Catharines-Niagara, Ont., and Regina posted a 0.7% increase, St. John’s, N.L., and Hamilton were both up 0.6%.

Monthly increases were also registered in Saint John, N.B., Fredericton and Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, the Ontario cities of Oshawa, Kitchener, Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Winnipeg and Victoria.

Four metropolitan areas registered no monthly change while the only declines were in Charlottetown, down 0.2% and Windsor, Ont., down 0.1%.