OTTAWA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Canadian home prices fell by the most in seven years in October as prices in Toronto slipped for a third straight month following provincial government measures to cool the housing market in the country's largest city, data showed on Wednesday.
The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which measures changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed national prices declined 1 percent in October from the month before, the biggest monthly decline since September 2010.
The index was up 10 percent from a year ago, but that was less than the 11.4 percent annual increase in September and the smallest 12-month gain since June 2016, the report said.
In Toronto, prices fell 2.8 percent on the month. Prices have retreated since the Ontario government in April introduced measures including a foreign buyers tax to rein in the market in Toronto and the surrounding area. there have been signs the market is starting to stabilize. Separate data earlier this month showed Toronto home sales were up in October from September, though they were still down from a year ago. Vancouver, where the British Columbia government implemented its own tax on foreign buyers more than a year ago, prices rose 0.7 percent to a fresh record, Teranet said.
Although Vancouver initially slowed after the tax was imposed in August 2016, prices have since regained ground and some economists think the slowdown in Toronto will be similarly short lived.