December 2013 Housing Starts in Ontario

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 9, 2014) - Housing starts in the Ontario region were trending at 61,069 units in December, compared to 62,098 in November, 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 in Ontario residential construction activity eased in December, but remained higher than it was for most of the year. Low inventories of new and existing single-detached homes and stronger job growth supported detached construction. Multiple construction slowed due to higher apartment inventories and less investor demand," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist.

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 SAAR of total housing starts was 53,690 units in December, down from 57,670 units in November.

For 2013, Ontario urban starts, at 58,614, were down 21 per cent from 2012. Multi family home construction which includes semi detached, row and apartment dwellings declined by 27 per cent, while single detached starts also slowed, down ten per cent from 2012.

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.

Information on this release:

Additional data is available upon request.

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A graphic and a table are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/921018a.pdf