February 2016 Housing Starts in Brantford CMA

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 8, 2016) - Housing starts in Brantford, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 711 units in February compared to 756 units in January, 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 Brantford CMA total housing starts decreased for two consecutive months, after having been pulled up by an unusually high number of multi-unit housing starts in December," said Abdul Kargbo, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for the Hamilton and Brantford CMAs. "The trend in single-detached housing starts increased in February compared to the previous month. Strong move-up buyer demand coming from the more expensive neighboring municipalities continued to support single-detached housing construction in Brantford."

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 standalone monthly SAAR was 384 units in February, up from 214 units in January. February's increase in the SAAR measure was completely due to a higher number of single-detached housing starts compared to the previous month.

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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Tables and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1045986E.pdf