February 2016 Housing Starts in Guelph

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Guelph Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending lower at 980 units in February compared to 1,412 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 decline in the starts trend in February mainly reflected the fact that builders had not started any apartments in the past five months. A period of several months without apartment starts is not unusual. Despite the absence of apartment starts, total starts in February were trending at a level close to long-term demand for new housing based on employment and population growth," said Erica McLerie, Senior Market Analyst at CMHC.

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 526 units in February, down from 755 units in January, due to a lower level of starts of all dwelling types. Actual starts for the first two months of the year increased by 80 per cent from the same period in 2015 due to higher single-detached and townhouse 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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Tables and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1045989E.pdf