According to new figures released today by Statistics Canada, new home prices in January dropped 0.6% from December 2008. This is the most significant fall in over 12 years, the latest being the 2.0% January drop in February 1991. Analysts were merely expecting a 0.2% fall. Year over year, new housing prices were down 0.8% in Canada.

For January 2009 over December, St. John’s and Saskatoon experienced 0.8% growth. Quebec also experienced growth at 0.6% in the country. Edmonton saw the biggest decline of 10.4% from December to January.

It is important to remember that new housing starts and new home prices are direct key indicators of where the economy is going, and with poor figures released today in recently in the U.S. things will get worse before they get better.