August 2014 Housing Starts in Sudbury

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 9, 2014) - Housing starts in the Greater Sudbury, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 202 units in August compared to 161 in July according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)¹ of housing starts.

"The trend continued to move higher in August due to stable growth of single-detached starts. However, year-to-date actual total starts have declined by 46 percent compared to same period last year mainly due to slower apartment construction. In the last five years 90 per cent of all apartment starts were purpose-built rental apartments. As of late apartment starts have been slowing down due to factors such as large number of rental apartments still under construction (272 units), an increase in vacancy rate, slower growth in employment for 15-24 year age group and a decline in in-migration are taking the steam out of purpose-built rental apartment construction in Greater Sudbury," said Jawad Ahmad, CMHC's Market Analyst for Sudbury.

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market. In some situations, analysing only SAAR data can be misleading in some markets, as they are largely driven by the multiples segment of the markets, which can be quite variable from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR was 270 units in August, down from 522 in July.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making informed decisions.

Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC_ca.

¹ All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts and the trend estimate, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) - that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. By removing seasonal ups and downs, seasonal adjustment allows for a comparison from one season to the next and from one month to the next. Reporting monthly figures at annual rates indicates the annual level of starts that would be obtained if the monthly pace was maintained for 12 months. This facilitates comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.

Additional data is available upon request.

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A graph and a table are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/966905E_GRAPH.pdf