New Housing Price Index (NHPI)

New Housing Price Index (NHPI)
Summary of changes
Other reference periods
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Detailed information for October 2001

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Monthly

Record number:

2310

The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) is a monthly series that measures changes over time in the contractors' selling prices of new residential houses, where detailed specifications pertaining to each house remain the same between two consecutive periods.

Data release - December 11, 2001

Description

The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) is a monthly series that measures changes over time in the contractors' selling prices of new residential houses, where detailed specifications pertaining to each house remain the same between two consecutive periods. The survey also collects contractors' estimates of the current value (evaluated at market price) of the land. These estimates are independently indexed to provide the published series for land. The residual, (total selling price less land value), which mainly relates to the current cost of the structure is also independently indexed and is presented as the estimated house series.

The NHPI is used by housing economists, universities and the general public to track and comprehend events and trends in this important component of the construction sector. Within Statistics Canada, components of these series are used in the calculation of some elements of the Consumer Price Index. In addition, the series is used by the Canadian System of National Accounts in deflating the value of the national housing stock. Due to the level of geographic detail provided and the sensitivity to changes in supply and demand, the NHPI series are of particular interest to the real estate industry for comparison with changes in values of houses sold in the resale market. The information provided by the NHPI is also useful to building contractors, market analysts interested in housing policy, suppliers and manufacturers of building products, insurance companies, federal government agencies such as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (C.M.H.C.), and provincial and municipal housing agencies responsible for housing policy.

Reference period: The time period for which the NHPI equals 100; currently this is the year 1997.

Collection period: For the NHPI, the collection process occurs over a two-week period beginning on the 15th of the reference month.

Subjects

  • Construction
  • Construction price indexes
  • Prices and price indexes
  • Residential construction

Data sources and methodology

Target population

For the NHPI, the universe consists of builders in 21 metropolitan areas who mainly build single unit houses in such volume or in such a fashion that they can report selling prices for comparable transactions.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a longitudinal design.

Estimation

Builder indexes are aggregated into a city index and city indexes in turn are aggregated into a national index using weights that reflect the volume of residential construction activity in particular cities during the preceding three years.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Collected data are converted to price indexes and data are released as such, so that it is not possible to identify the suppliers of raw prices.

Data accuracy

Difficulty of obtaining up-to-date frame. Respondents provide estimates of cost of structure and land for each selling price.

Documentation

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