OTTAWA (Reuters) - New housing prices rose by only 0.1 percent in July from June, and the
Torontoand Oshawa area showed no monthly increase at all, Statistics Canada reported on Thursday.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tightened mortgage lending rules in late June, concerned about a possiblehousing bubble particularly in the condo markets in Toronto and Vancouver.
However, the new housing price index excludes condominiums.
The Toronto and Oshawa area, while showing no increase from July, was up 4.6 percent from a year earlier. Vancouver was up 0.1 percent from June and down 0.8 percent from 12 months earlier.
The median analyst forecast in a Reuters survey was for a 0.2 percent increase in the national index, matching the rise in June. Year on year, contractors' selling prices were up 2.3 percent.
