Trade tensions and a widening condo slide pushed national home values lower in August
Canada's national home values fell 3% year over year in August, according to the RPS-Wahi House Price Index. Deepening condo correction extended well beyond southern Ontario and British Columbia into Alberta and other markets and renewed trade tensions kept a lid on homebuyer confidence across the country.
The index, produced by Real Property Solutions (RPS) and presented by Wahi, a Canadian real estate platform, draws from actual home values in 1,000 towns and cities nationwide and is widely considered one of Canada's most comprehensive measures of property price trends.
Multi-family housing sustained the sharpest losses in August. Row and townhouse values dropped 7% year over year, while condo prices declined 6%.
Detached and semi-detached homes each fell 3% — a more contained slide that, in several markets, still translated to modest positive territory.
"Economic uncertainty helped stall the Canadian housing market's recovery this summer, but not all markets are affected equally," said Ryan McLaughlin, economist at RPS and Wahi.
"Some property types continue to prove more resilient than others as well."
Southern Ontario leads the retreat
The steepest declines remained concentrated in southern Ontario, where Toronto and Hamilton each posted year-over-year price drops of 7% last month.
On the West Coast, British Columbia's outlook improved modestly relative to earlier in 2026: Vancouver and Victoria both registered declines of 3%, a narrower contraction than the province endured through much of the first half of the year.
The condo segment has been a persistent concern for mortgage professionals operating in the Greater Toronto Area. Toronto's condo market has shown few signs of recovery since the start of 2026, with oversupply and weakened rental demand weighing heavily on investor-held units.
Dan Eisner, founder and chief executive officer of True North Mortgage in Calgary, Alberta, told Canadian Mortgage Professional earlier this year he saw no near-term resolution to the glut. "I don't see a bottom yet," Eisner said.
Alberta, which came under pressure through much of 2025, edged back toward equilibrium last month.
Calgary returned to flat — a 0% year-over-year change after a -1% reading in July — supported by steadier single-family home values and narrowing declines on the multi-family side.
Quebec City and Regina remain the national outliers
Prices are now falling in fewer than half of the 13 major metro areas that RPS-Wahi monitors each month, a modest improvement from earlier in the year, when Canada's housing market split sharply along regional lines in the first quarter of 2026.
Quebec City continued to lead the country, with values up 11% year over year in August. Chronic supply constraints have sustained demand there even as affordability erodes, a dynamic the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) has flagged as unlikely to ease in the near term.
Montreal and Regina each posted gains of 6%, supported by relative affordability and tight inventory.
Saskatchewan's capital has benefited from interprovincial migration and a limited new-build pipeline that keeps competition for existing stock elevated.
Canada's strongest regional markets have continued to outperform national benchmarks throughout 2026, a pattern the RPS-Wahi data reinforces.
For mortgage brokers advising clients in a fragmented landscape, the data underscores a reality that national averages increasingly obscure: where a client buys, and what they buy, now carries more weight than ever before.
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