TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian home prices fell in October for the first time in six months but an underlying upswing was maintained, data showed on Tuesday.
The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which measures changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, fell 0.1% last month from September. It was the first decline since April.
"The final quarter of the year is typically slow for the index," said Marc Pinsonneault, a senior economist at National Bank of Canada.
After seasonal adjustment, "October would have been the third consecutive month of an underlying uptrend," Pinsonneault said.
Six of the 11 metropolitan areas in the index showed declines, led by a 1% drop for Edmonton, the capital of the province of Alberta. Toronto was down 0.2%, the first decline for Canada's most populous city since March.
Meanwhile, Vancouver was up for the first time in 15 months, rising 0.2%. Sales activity in the west coast city's once red-hot housing market has picked up since August.
Compared to the same month one year ago, the composite index gained 1%, which was the third straight month that the year-over-year increase accelerated.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
