December 2012 Housing Starts in Peterborough

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 9, 2013) - Housing starts in Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 458 units in December, 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 standalone monthly SAAR was 187 units in December, down from 338 in November.

"After a slower month of construction last month compared to December 2011, annual starts finished slightly lower this year. Apartment starts nearly doubled from 2011, while construction of all other residential housing types was lower in 2012. A decrease in single-detached construction effectively offset the higher apartment starts," said Anthony Passarelli, CMHC's Market Analyst for Peterborough.

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 multiples segment includes apartments, rows and semi-detached homes.

Single-detached starts added 16 actual units in December 2012, down from 28 units reported in December 2011. There were no other residential housing types started last month. Annual starts for 2012 finished at 343 actual units with activity more evenly split between both singles and multiple starts than in 2011.

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.

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.

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Additional data is available upon request.

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To view the tables and graph associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CMHC(EN)-Ts%26G.pdf.