Hamilton home prices continued to edge up in the first quarter of the year at a faster rate than the national trend.

The aggregate price of a home in Hamilton increased by 6.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 to $561,237, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey released Thursday.

Compare that to the price of a home in Canada, which has jumped 2.7 per cent year-over-year to $621,575 over the same period.

Taking a closer look at different types of housing in Hamilton, the median price of a two-storey home increased 6.5 per cent year-over-year to $592,832, while the median price of a bungalow jumped by 6.1 per cent to $511,049.

During the same quarter, the median price of a condominium rose 1.2 per cent to $331,723, said a release from Royal LePage.

"I think demand is still there," Joe Ferrante, broker of record with Royal LePage State Realty, said about Hamilton's real estate landscape. "There is a little bit more inventory ... It is giving buyers a little bit more time."

Prices in the city can vary from area to area, he said, noting the average price in east Hamilton is around $385,000 and it is close to $372,000 in central Hamilton.

When comparing this year's prices to those from 2018, Ferrante said it's important to take into account how the market cooled last year after the federal government imposed a stress test and the former Liberal provincial government introduced the Ontario Fair Housing Plan.

The survey does not report the number of sales, but recent figures from the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington show local home sales are on the rise so far this year but have not caught up to where they were at the same time in 2018.

March real estate sales in the local area jumped 40 per cent to 1,032 compared to February sales, but lagged one per cent behind the same period in 2018, said the RAHB's monthly report.

Compared to January 2019, March sales in the RAHB market, which includes Hamilton, Burlington and Grimsby, saw a 74 per cent increase.

Looking ahead, Ferrante said he is "cautiously optimistic" that Hamilton will remain flat or see slight increases in average sale prices for the remainder of the year.

At the national level, 2019 is expected to be a "sluggish" year for residential real estate because of the "hangover," partly because of last year's market correction and slower economic growth, Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper said in a news release.

npaddon@thespec.com

905-526-2420 | @NatatTheSpec

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See the latest monthly report from the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington.