Recently released house price figures in Canada reveal that resale home prices were flat in March compared to February, while annual growth also slowed.
According to the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, average house prices nationwide stayed roughly the same in March from the previous month, and while prices are still 4.6 per cent higher than they were a year ago, in February prices were 5 per cent higher than they had been 12 months earlier.
“Except for the recession year of 2009, this is the first time in 15 years of index data collection that home prices for Canada as a whole have failed to advance in March,”Teranet said in its report.
The Teranet data showed that prices rose in March from the month before in six out of the 11 cities surveyed, fell in three cities, and were flat in two.
From a month earlier, prices rose 1.4 per cent in Calgary, 0.4 per cent in Edmonton, 0.8 per cent in Halifax, 0.6 per cent in Vancouver and 0.2 per cent in Winnipeg. Vancouver’s gain was the city’s 11th straight monthly increase.
Prices were down 0.7 per cent in Hamilton, 1.8 per cent in Montreal and 0.6 per cent in Ottawa. They were flat in Toronto and Quebec City.
Year-over-year price gains were seen in seven of the 11 cities surveyed, with Calgary (9.7 per cent) Vancouver (7.6 per cent) and Toronto (5.8 per cent) recording the biggest annual price rises.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, recorded the biggest dip in prices, with average resale values in the city now 4.2 per cent lower than they were a year earlier.
Slowing house price growth will no doubt be treated as good news for anyone planning on emigrating to Canada in the near future and planning to buy a home in the country. But to make sure you really biggest and best house possible for your money, then it’s time to start exploring the options you have when it comes to exchanging your Pounds for Canadian Dollars.
When exchanging large lump sums, even only slight fluctuations in the currency exchange markets can have a huge impact on the money you’ll have available to start your new life.
Over the past three months, the Canadian Dollar’s value against the Pound has both risen and fallen. On 15th January, £1 was worth CDN$1.789, meaning that if you exchanged£150,000 on that date then you would have received CDN$268,350. Yesterday, exchanging the same amount would have netted you CDN$273,900 as the valued of the Canadian Dollar had risen to CDN$1.826 against the Pound. However, had you exchanged on 21st March then you would have been even better off. Back then, exchanging £150,000 for Canadian Dollars would have afforded you CDN$279,450!
Fortunately, you don’t have to be a financial whizz kid to make sure you get the best exchange rate – that’s what companies like Halo Financial are there for.
Foreign exchange companies understand why the exchange rates are moving and just what impact this has on your currency transaction. What’s more, they can also explain how to make your money go further and give you a range options on exactly when you wish to exchange, and how much you should exchange at a time.
To find out how you can make sure you can get the best exchange rate possible, and take advantage of positive fluctuations in the markets, visit www.halofinancial.com