December 2016 Housing Starts in Brantford CMA

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2017) - Housing starts in Brantford Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 337 units in December compared to 332 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) of housing starts.

"The trend in Brantford CMA total housing starts was practically unchanged in December 2016, as the marginal increase in the trend for townhouse starts completely offset the slight decline in the trend for single-detached housing starts," said Abdul Kargbo, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for the Hamilton and Brantford CMAs. "Total housing starts were down in 2016, after the unusually strong 2015. CMHC expects total housing starts to move back to the long-run level in 2017."

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 standalone monthly SAAR was 218 units in December, down from 267 units in November. The December decrease in the SAAR measure was mainly due to fewer multi-unit housing starts compared to the previous month.

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/En_Brantford.pdf