Canada home prices fall 5.8 pct in March -report

TORONTO, May 27 (Reuters) - Canadian home prices fell 5.8 percent in March from the same month a year earlier, a faster pace of decline than in February, a report showed on Wednesday.

The Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index, which measures the rate of change of prices for single-family homes in six metropolitan areas, also showed prices were down 8.5 percent nationally from the peak hit in August last year.

Western Canadian home prices were hardest hit, with Vancouver, British Columbia leading with a 9.6 percent decline in March from a year earlier, while Calgary, Alberta, had an 8.4 percent drop.

Toronto followed with a 6.9 percent slide.

Halifax reported the smallest retreat at 0.8 percent.

Montreal and Ottawa bucked the trend in March, rising 2.9 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively.

The index showed home prices sagged 4.1 percent year-over-year in February. (Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Peter Galloway)