December 2016 Housing Starts in St. John's

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwired - Jan. 10, 2017) - Housing starts in St. John's, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 891 units in December compared to 888 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.

Actual housing starts increased 13 per cent in December compared to December 2015 in line with the trend measure in housing starts, which continued slightly higher in the St. John's area. "While single-detached starts were down slightly, an increase in multiple housing starts drove total new home construction activity higher in December. For 2016, singles declined 14 per cent to 625 and multiples declined 19 per cent to 208, for 833 total starts, down 15 per cent over 2015's activity," said Chris Janes, Senior Market Analyst with CMHC's Atlantic Market Analysis Centre.

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 861 units in December compared to 806 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/1082108e.pdf