Few Housing Starts in February Not Uncommon

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - March 8, 2016) - Housing starts in Prince Edward Island's urban areas were trending at 460 units in February compared to 521 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.

"February is typically a slower month for housing construction in Prince Edward Island, and last month stayed true to this historic trend. There was only one housing start across the Island's urban centres, compared to four starts in February 2015" said Sarena Teakles, Market Analyst. "Year-to-date there have been 34 housing starts in total for Charlottetown and Summerside," she added.

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 56 units in February, down from 460 units in January.

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/1045894a.pdf