Toronto has made it to number one, when it comes to house prices.
Canada’s largest city saw the fastest pace of house price growth of any major world city in the past year, according to research from analytics firm CoreLogic.
Toronto’s median house price jumped 19% in the past year, beating second-place Sydney, Australia, and third-place Vancouver, which has seen prices slow in the past six months.
The survey measures median house prices, a slightly different measure than the average numbers typically provided by Canadian real estate boards.
Average prices have spiked even more steeply in Greater Toronto, up by 27.7% in February compared to a year earlier, to $875,983.
But if Ontario’s fiscal watchdog is right, a house price slowdown is in the offing, and Toronto's reign will be a short one.
The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, which provides independent advice to the provincial legislature, is forecasting "slightly lower (house) prices" over the next three years.
The report also noted there is an elevated risk of a housing correction. In that scenario, it sees house prices declining 10% by 2020, from their 2016 levels. In its worst-case scenario, that becomes a 20% price decline.
