December 2016 Housing Starts in St. Catharines-Niagara

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2017) - Housing starts in the St. Catharines-Niagara Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending slightly lower at 1,866 units in December compared to 2,011 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 housing starts continued to decline in December as a result of declining trends in starts for all dwelling types," said James Cuddy, CMHC's Market Analyst. "New listings in the existing home market are playing a role in lower housing starts. After reaching a historic low in January 2016, the recent rise in the number of new listings (seasonally adjusted) has given prospective homebuyers more options in the resale market. The higher number of sales of existing homes in the latter part of the year is further evidence that increased new listings led to a shift in demand from the new to the existing home market. At the same time, the median price for new single-detached homes rose in the second half of 2016, increasing the affordability of resale homes relative to new homes. Despite the recent downward trend in housing starts, actual starts totaled 1,957 in 2016 driven in large part by single-detached units in Niagara Falls. This marks the highest annual number of housing starts since 1990."

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 1,538 in December, essentially unchanged from 1,526 in November.

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/1082179_E.pdf