December 2016 Housing Starts in Oshawa

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2017) - Housing starts in the Oshawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended lower at 2,026 in December 2016 compared to 2,523 in November 2016 according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts.

"Although total starts trended lower in the Oshawa CMA in December, overall new home construction activity remains in line with the 10 year average. The area benefits from rising number of price-sensitive homebuyers flocking here for relatively more affordable homes," said Andrew Scott, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for the GTA. "The actual number of starts for 2016 was 2,491, down 3.7 per cent from 2015. The decline was the result of fewer single-detached starts. Notwithstanding, the number of multi-unit starts were up by 32.2 per cent."

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 standalone monthly SAAR was 1,455 units in December 2016, virtually unchanged from 1,499 units in November 2016. The changes were marginal across all housing types.

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/1082242e.pdf