New home prices rose 0.3% in March

Prices for new homes in Canada rose an average of new 0.3 per cent in March over the previous month,Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

That's up from a 0.1 per cent increase in February over January, the ninth consecutive monthly gain.

Year over year, the index was 1.6 per cent higher in March,compared to0.9 per cent in February.

Only three of 21 metropolitan areas surveyed posted losses for the year: Victoria (down 4.6 per cent) Edmonton (down 2.4 per cent) and Charlottetown, down 1.2 per cent.

On a monthly basis, the1.7 per cent gain in London, Ont., led the country, with prices in Montreal and Kitchener, Ont.,increasing byone per cent.

On the opposite end of the ledger, Charlottetown had the largest drop in the country, at 0.5 per cent, followed by Hamiltonand Edmonton, with 0.3 per cent declines.