Canadian new home prices unchanged; Toronto sees drop

OTTAWA (Reuters) - New home prices in Canada were on average unchanged in July from June, with declines in the major cities of Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa offsetting hikes in Calgary and elsewhere, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. The Canadian government, which has intervened in the mortgage market several times since 2008 to cool the sector, has said it was watching the housing market but did not see a bubble. The new housing price index excludes apartments and condominiums, which the government has said are of most concern. Year-on-year prices were up a modest 1.4 percent. Prices in Calgary, the hub of Canada's oil industry, rose 0.2 percent in July from June and were 6.9 percent higher than a year earlier. Prices in Toronto, the country's largest city, were down 0.1 percent on the month, the first decrease since February 2010, but up 1.9 percent on the year. Vancouver saw a 1.8 percent drop in prices from a year ago. (Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Paul Simao)