The short answer
Home price reports disagree because they measure two different things. An average sale price adds up what happened to sell that month and divides by the number of sales — so it moves whenever the mix of homes changes, even if no individual home changed in value. A house price index tracks what comparable homes are worth over time, which is much closer to how a lender’s appraisal works. Both numbers can be correct in the same month and still point in opposite directions. If you’re making a mortgage decision — a renewal, a refinance, or pulling out equity — the index is the number that behaves like your home. The average is a headline.
Two reports, same month, different answers
In July 2026, the BC Real Estate Association reported the provincial average home price at $929,619, down 1.3% from a year earlier. The same month, the RPS House Price Index showed home values falling at roughly 3% year over year — more than double the decline. In the Okanagan, it got stranger: the average sale price was up about 8%, while values across the country were broadly falling.
Nobody made a mistake. The two reports are answering different questions.
What an average sale price measures
The average is exactly what it sounds like: take every home that sold this month, add up the prices, divide by the number of sales.
The catch is that it moves with what sold, not with what homes are worth. A quiet month for waterfront homes and a busy month for condos drags the average down — even if not a single home in the province lost a dollar of value. A handful of luxury sales pushes it up the same way.
That Okanagan number is the perfect example. An 8% jump in the average almost certainly doesn’t mean every Okanagan home gained 8% in a year. It means more higher-priced homes sold that month than the month being compared against. The mix changed. The homes mostly didn’t.
What a house price index measures
A house price index (the RPS index is the one we watch) takes a different approach: it tracks what comparable homes are worth over time. Instead of asking “what was the average sale this month?”, it asks “what is the same kind of home worth now versus a year ago?”
RPS also smooths its numbers over a rolling six-month window and filters out outliers — so one unusual luxury sale doesn’t swing the whole reading. The result is slower-moving and less dramatic than the monthly average, which is exactly why it’s more useful.
Which number matters for your mortgage
Here’s the part that matters for real decisions: the index behaves like an appraisal — the professional valuation a lender orders to confirm what your home is worth. When you refinance, pull out equity, or move your mortgage at renewal, the amount you can borrow turns on that appraised value, not on any headline.
An appraiser compares your home to recent sales of similar homes nearby — which is, in miniature, what a price index does at scale. So when the average says one thing and the index says another, the index is the better preview of what your appraisal will say.
The average sale price is fine for what it is: a snapshot of that month’s sales activity. It just isn’t a measurement of your home.
Property type matters more than most people realise
Averages also hide something the index makes plain: different kinds of homes are moving at very different speeds. RPS’s July 2026 national numbers by property type:
| Property type | Value change (year over year) |
|---|
| Townhome | −8% |
| Condo | −6% |
| Semi-detached | −4% |
| Detached | −3% |
A condo owner and a detached-home owner on the same street are having different years — and a provincial average blends them all into one number that describes neither. It also varies sharply by region: RPS had Vancouver down 4% and Victoria down 6% in the same month Quebec City was up 11%. “The national housing market” is a phrase, not a place.
What this means for you
If your mortgage plan is built on a value from two or three years ago — or on a headline you saw last week — it’s worth getting the number checked before you build on it. A renewal, a refinance, or an equity take-out all start from what your home would appraise at today, and that can differ meaningfully from both the old number and the news.
Getting the value right is only the first step; how you use it at renewal or refinance is the bigger decision, and that’s covered in our guide to choosing a mortgage broker for renewals and refinancing in BC.
If you’d like a read on where your own home and mortgage sit before your next decision point, book a free, zero-pressure strategy session and we’ll walk through it together.
Frequently asked questions
Why do home price reports disagree?
Because they measure different things. An average sale price reflects the mix of homes that happened to sell that month, so it swings when the mix changes. A house price index tracks what comparable homes are worth over time. Both can be accurate in the same month and still move in opposite directions.
Which number does a mortgage lender actually use?
Neither, directly — a lender uses an appraisal of your specific home. But an appraisal works the same way an index does: comparing your home against recent sales of similar homes nearby. That’s why the index is the better preview of what a lender will see, and the average is not.
Does the national average matter for my home?
Very little. National and provincial averages blend every property type and region into one figure. In July 2026 the national index showed values down 3% while Quebec City was up 11% and parts of BC were down 6–9%. Your home tracks your local market and your property type, not the country.
Why did my condo drop more than my neighbour’s house?
Different property types move at different speeds. In mid-2026, national data showed townhomes and condos falling faster than detached homes — roughly −8% and −6% versus −3%. Attached homes are more sensitive to investor activity and first-time-buyer demand, both of which cooled first.
