Home Price Index for Vancouver East, April 2012
The MLS® Home Price Index (MLS® HPI) is a new tool to measure home price trends in Greater Vancouver and other major markets in the country. The MLS® HPI was developed by five of Canada’s largest real estate boards – Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal – and the Canadian Real Estate Association.
This MLS® HPI replaces the MLSLink Housing Price Index, which had been used by Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley REALTORS® since the mid 1990s. MLS® HPI statistics should not be compared with previous MLSLink HPI statistics.
HPI?
Not your 'average' price
The MLS® Home Price Index is modelled on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rate of price change for a basket of goods and services including food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.
Instead of measuring goods and services, the HPI measures the change in the price of housing features. Thus, the HPI measures typical, pure price change (inflation or deflation).
The HPI benchmarks represent the price of a typical property within each market. The HPI takes into consideration what averages and medians do not – items such as lot size, age, number of rooms, etc. These features become the composite of the ‘typical house’ in a given area.
Each month’s sales determine the current prices paid for bedrooms, bathrooms, fireplaces, etc. and apply those new values to the ‘typical’ house model.
