Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation: July 2012 Housing Starts in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 9, 2012) - Housing starts in the Vancouver CMA were trending at 19,600 units through 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 total starts. The stand alone monthly seasonally adjusted rate was 16,800 units in July, down from 26,600 in June.

"Housing starts in the Vancouver CMA came down from the levels seen in June," noted Robyn Adamache, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst. "Overall, starts in July were on par with the same month last year. Year-to-date, there were 11,341 starts in the Vancouver CMA compared to 9,831 in the same period last year. The cities of New Westminster, North Vancouver and Vancouver showed the largest gains."

For some markets, 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 volatile from one month to the next.

In the Fraser Valley, year-to-date starts for the Abbotsford-Mission CMA and the Chilliwack CA moved in opposite directions compared to the same period last year. The Abbotsford-Mission CMA had 249 starts through the end of July compared to 295 in the same period the previous year, while Chilliwack had 294 starts to the end of July compared to 158 in the same period in 2011.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of high 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.

For more information, visit www.cmhc.ca or call 1-800-668-2642. CMHC Market Analysis standard reports are also available free for download at www.cmhc.ca/housingmarketinformation.

¹ All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts, 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 makes it possible to highlight the fundamental trends of a series. 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.

Preliminary housing starts numbers are summarized in the attached table.

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To view the graph and table associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/cmhc-0809-van.pdf.