December 2016 Housing Starts in Barrie

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2017) - Housing starts in the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 1,813 units in December, down from 2,148 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) of housing starts.

"The trend in Barrie total housing starts decreased in December, due to the decline in the trends of starts of all dwelling types. However; total actual starts for 2016 rose sharply to 1,723, the highest point in the past decade. Growing demand in the Barrie existing home market, which has favoured sellers over the past several years, spilled over to the new home market in 2016. In addition, the start-up of several high-density residential projects for the first time in the Town of Innisfil significantly increased apartment starts in 2016," said Abdellah Massaoudi, CMHC's Market Analyst for Barrie.

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, analyzing 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 standalone monthly SAAR was 567 units in December, down from 793 in November. December's decrease in the SAAR measure was due to fewer single-detached starts compared to the previous month and to the absence of multi-unit housing starts.

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.

For more information, visit our website at www.cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Additional data is available upon request.

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To view the graph and tables associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1082187E.pdf