December 2016 Housing Starts in Ottawa

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2017) - Housing starts in the Ottawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 5,997 units in December compared to 5,881 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.

"Housing starts trended slightly up in December mainly due to a rise in rental apartment starts, while condominium apartment starts declined on account of high inventories. For the year, housing starts rose 6.5 per cent relative to 2015 mostly due to an increase in rows whose popularity is growing as one of the more affordable dwelling types. An improvement in employment and earnings this year has led to a rebound in housing activity on the new home market front," said Anne-Marie Shaker, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for Ottawa.

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.

In Ottawa, the monthly SAAR measure was 6,242 in December, up from 4,117 in November, primarily due to a sharp increase in rental apartment 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/Ottawa_En.pdf