Ranked: Canada’s Housing Markets, by Price Growth in 2023

Ranked: Canada’s Housing Markets By Price Growth in 2023

Between 2010 and 2022, real Canadian housing prices jumped 90%, making Canada one of the most expensive and unaffordable housing markets in the world.

We visualize the average price of housing across Canada’s provinces and territories in 2023 (excluding Nunavut), based on data from the Canada Real Estate Association (CREA).

The data visualized above is a mix of averages provided by provincial organizations to CREA as well as benchmarks found using CREA’s MLS® HPI tool. Data from the MLS tool is labeled with an asterisk in the below table, and the methodology behind how it is calculated can be found here.

All prices in this article are in Canadian dollars (CAD). The chart above adds in the U.S. dollar (USD) equivalent based on a 0.74 CAD/USD conversion rate.

One Canadian Housing Market is Not Slowing Down
The average price of a house in the Northwest Territories (NWT) comfortably crossed half a million dollars in September, 2023, a 40% jump from $385,500 a year earlier.

However a house in NWT still costs below the country-wide average of $640,000.

Here’s how the rest of Canada’s housing markets did between September 2022–23, ranked by percentage price growth.

The price boom in NWT, which picked up pace during the pandemic, is due to a lack of supply and new construction. The territory has also seen greater wildfire risk over the years—in 2023, nearly 70% of the population faced displacement due to encroaching fires. Over the long, hot summer, wildfires wiped out towns and forced the entire city of Yellowknife (population 20,000) to evacuate for three weeks.

The federal government has promised the construction of 50 new affordable homes to mitigate some of the destruction.

While no other housing market has mirrored what’s happening in NWT, every one of them, except the Yukon has seen some sort of price growth.

For British Columbia, and Ontario—the country’s most expensive regions—prices are closer to $1 million than not. Their biggest cities, Vancouver and Toronto routinely feature in annual reports on real estate bubbles around the world.

However, both regions have recently seen a housing supply surge which may cause prices to drop as much as 10% in 2024—still leaving them 15% higher than before the pandemic.