December 2014 Housing Starts in Guelph

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the Guelph Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending down at 1,705 units in December compared to 1,729 units 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 remained elevated due to the high level of apartment starts in July and August. Housing starts in 2014 increased due to the strong level of apartment starts, driven up by demand from young households, immigrants, seniors and students. These households are more likely to live in apartments. Increased apartment construction is in line with the intensification initiatives in the City of Guelph. Single-detached starts increased marginally, while semi-detached and townhouse starts were lower," said Erica McLerie, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for Guelph.

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.

The SAAR of total housing starts was 360 units in December, down from 553 units in November. For 2014, housing starts increased to 1,064 units from 890 units in 2013.

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 advice to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

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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Tables and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/986883e.pdf