February 2016 Housing Starts in Peterborough

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending down at an annualized rate of 408 units in February compared to 427 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 total housing starts had been moving higher for most of 2015, but in the last three months has been gradually edging down, reflecting a declining trend in rowhouse starts as well as slightly lower levels of single-detached starts. Selwyn Township was the lone submarket in the CMA with housing starts during last month. Steady employment and low mortgage rates remain supportive of new housing demand," said Olga Golozub, CMHC's Market Analyst for Peterborough.

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 multi-unit segment includes apartment, row and semi-detached homes.

The more volatile SAAR measure of total housing starts was 283 units in February, down from 435 units in January solely due to a decrease in single-detached 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/CMHC_1045990e.pdf