February 2013 Housing Starts in British Columbia

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 8, 2013) - Housing starts in British Columbia's urban areas¹ were trending at 23,295 units in February, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)² of housing starts.

"Housing starts trended lower in February compared to January due to a lower level of apartment starts. The trend level of single-detached housing starts continued higher for the fourth consecutive month, reaching just over 7,000 units at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate," said Carol Frketich, CMHC's British Columbia Regional Economist.

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 stand-alone monthly SAAR was 22,061 units in February, up from 21,611 units in January.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: http://www.cmhc.gc.ca/en/hoficlincl/homain/stda/index.cfm

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making informed decisions.

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¹ Urban areas are centres with populations of 10,000 or more people.

² All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts and the trend estimate, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) - that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. By removing seasonal ups and downs, seasonal adjustment allows for a comparison from one season to the next and from one month to the next. Reporting monthly figures at annual rates indicates the annual level of starts that would be obtained if the monthly pace was maintained for 12 months. This facilitates comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.

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To view the graph and tables associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/cmhc-bc-0308.pdf.