Canadian home prices will continue to go up in 2012, although at a slower pace than they did last year, according to one of the country’s largest real-estate sales organizations.
Royal LePage, which franchises brokerages across the country, predicted Thursday that the national average price for resale homes will increase this year by 2.8 per cent by the end of 2012.
It said the national average price for a standard two-storey home was $375,427 in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 4.2 per cent from 2010.
“Widespread calls for a major real estate correction in 2012 simply can’t be justified. The industry has significant momentum entering the year, and buoyed by the stimulative effect of very low interest rates, we expect the market to continue to expand — albeit at a slower pace,” said Phil Soper, the president and CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services.
