The new housing price index was up 2.3% year-over-year, compared with July's +2.7%. The rate of increase has been trending steadily downward since September, 2006, when it stood at 11.9% year-over-year.

The national index was unchanged from July. Analysts had expected to see a 0.1% increase in the month-over-month index.

St. John's, Newfoundland posted the highest annual price increase in August at 23.7%, with builders citing higher costs for material, labour and land development as reasons for the dramatic jump.

The average new home in Regina cost 23.1% more in August than it did a year earlier. Quebec City prices were up 6.1% year-over-year and in Montreal the index rose 5.2%.

Toronto reported a 3.4% increase in the annual index of new home prices, Ottawa-Gatineau was up 4.1%, Winnipeg increased 6.7% and Vancouver rose 1.5%.

New home prices in Alberta's two biggest cities were down year-over-year, with Edmonton registering a 5.7% decrease and Calgary down 1.1%. Calgary prices fell 0.8% between July and August.

By Geoff Matthews, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Stephen Huebl, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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