The Canadian Real Estate Association says the national average home price climbed by more than 20 per cent since last year to hit a record $816,720 in February, as supply slowly started to return to the market and sales activity picked up.
But don't expect any relief in the next two years, the association warned Tuesday.
It forecasts that the national average home price will rise by 14.3 per cent on an annual basis to $786,000 in 2022 and then another 3.2 per cent to $810,934 in 2023.
Those increases reflect an "unprecedented imbalance" of housing supply and demand, said the association, which cautioned that the forecasts are "conservative" given recent surges in prices.
Robert Kavcic, BMO Capital Markets' senior economist, pointed out that the aggregate composite home price index was up 3.5 per cent on a year-over-year basis, the strongest monthly gain on record.
"That blows through the pace seen a year ago, and also the fastest clip of the early-2017 period," he said in a note to investors.