February 2016 Housing Starts in Thunder Bay

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 8, 2016) - Housing starts in Thunder Bay, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 266 units in February, down from 292 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's downward movement in February marks the third month that the trend has moved negatively after a solid run-up that had begun in April of 2015. The decline can be attributed primarily to weaker multiple-unit housing starts, which include semi-detached homes, townhouses and apartments. Flat employment and a resale market moving into balance caused starts to slow in the last few months," concluded Warren Philp, CMHC Market Analyst for the Thunder Bay CMA.

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 136 units in February down from 368 units in January due to weak single-detached and multiple-unit housing 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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A table and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CMHC_1045978e.pdf