Regina and Saskatoon show resilience amid housing market correction: RBC

Home prices continue to drop across Canada, part of a countrywide housing correction spurred on by higher interest rates, according to a recent housing report.

Royal Bank of Canada's (RBC) latest housing market updatesaid that the country's housing market continued its downward slide for the seventh consecutive month, with property values and home sales continuing to plummet.

"With further interest rate hikes likely on the way in the coming months, we expect more of the same," the survey stated.

However, RBC reported that Saskatchewan's two largest cities are a "pocket of resilience" in the housing correction.

"The erosion of prices is modest in many Prairie markets," the report stated.

"This reflects stronger provincial economies, the resumption of in-migration and relatively affordable properties."

Home sales dropped36 per cent nationally since February, according to RBC.

Home prices in Regina were down just 1.6 per cent from the April peak, while Saskatoon's index was down 0.6 per cent in September, according to the report.

"Rising rates will intensify affordability issues in the near term and sustain heavy downward pressure on home prices," the report stated.

RBC expects benchmark prices to fall an additional 14 per cent by next spring, with Saskatchewan's correction predicted to be milder at four per cent.

Saskatchewan Realtors Association CEO Chris Gurettesaid that Saskatchewan didn't see the dramatic increases in home prices over the past two years that other cities experienced, which is why the province isn't seeing such sharp drops.

"We were experiencing what other large centres were experiencing, but at a much downplayed intensity."

Gurette said that while Saskatchewan's housing market is more affordable than in other provinces, many people are still struggling to pay for housing.

"We have people who are struggling to just get into the housing continuum, right? They're not even in the housing continuum.So we can't forget about all those pieces."