New home prices continue to climb.
February 10, 2005 - Further proof of Ottawa's hot housing market: new home prices in Ottawa-Gatineau have risen faster than any other city in Canada since 1997.
Statistics Canada's new housing price index for Ottawa stands at 151 at the end of December 2004, compared to 100 in 1997.
Booming Calgary ranked second, with a reading of 140.2.
The agency says the price of new homes in Ottawa rose 6.9 per cent last year. The St. Catherines/Niagara area posted the highest increase at 8.9 per cent, followed by Winnipeg. The national average increase was 5.3 per cent.
The smallest increase in new home prices last year was in Halifax, where prices were up less than one per cent.
The new housing price index is based on contractor's selling prices for new homes in 21 metropolitan areas across the country.
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