Canada's housing market continues to sizzle, unperturbed by mounting signs of a cooling real estate market in the neighbouring US.
Sales of existing homes reached their fifth-highest monthly level on record in February, reported the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), based on data compiled from 41,555 sales that month.
The average selling price of a resale home in Canada jumped to a record high of C$268,215 ($1.8 million) in February, up 3.8 per cent from January.
That monthly gain was the second largest in 15 years.
Last month, housing starts in Canada rose to more than 252,000, the strongest March on record since1987.
The latest data describes a resale housing market that is showing little sign of cooling down, even though market observers are starting to raise red flags about declining affordability.
On March 29, the Royal Bank of Canada reported that high home prices and utility costs pushed affordability to the worst level in a decade.
