August 2015 Housing Starts in Oshawa

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the Oshawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended higher at 2,266 in August compared to 2,117 in July 2015 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.

"Over the past five months housing starts in the Oshawa CMA have been robust and trending above their historical 10-year annual average. New home construction has picked up in response to rising demand for relatively affordable homes in the Oshawa area," said Dana Senagama, CMHC's Principal of Market Analysis for the GTA.

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 2,799 units in August, slightly down from 2,837 in July 2015. The low-rise home types were the source of the decline. In contrast, apartment starts were stronger than usual.

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

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

(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.

Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC_ca

Additional data is available upon request.

(Ce document existe également en français)

Tables and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1024307a.pdf