Australia beat Canada in a rise in housing prices in the first quarter of 2010, according to an analysis of the company\'s studies Scotia Economics, quoted by the Vancouver Sun. The company interpreted this as a signal that the global improvement in the sector of real estate other Canadian markets catch up growth rate. However, Canada, which was led by increases in housing in the last quarter of last year, lagging behind with less than Australia. After adjustment for inflation, average housing prices in Canada rose by 16.6% yoy during the first three months of the year, slower than growth of 19.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 Australia ahead of second place in the last three months of last year, when growth was 11.4 percent on an annual basis, to the forefront in the first quarter of this year with an increase of 17.1%. The study covers five major developed economies for which data are available for the first quarter - Australia, Canada, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. After more than four years of decline in U.S. housing decline seems to stop as prices there have fallen by only 1.1 percent in the first quarter on an annual basis compared with a decrease of 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 indicate by the company. Data for the first two months of the year by Scotia Economics also estimated that housing prices in Britain rose 4.2 percent from a year earlier, after the last quarter of 2009 fell by 1.6 percent annually base.