Housing Starts Continue to Trend Down in March

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in New Brunswick's urban centres were trending at 1,180 units in March compared to 1,429 in February 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.

"Housing starts in New Brunswick have trended lower over the first quarter of 2016," said Michael Edwards, Senior Market Analyst with CMHC's Atlantic Market Analysis Centre. "Much of the downward trend is explained by the drop in apartment starts for Moncton where a high rental vacancy rate has discouraged construction," added Edwards.

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 810 units in March, up from 644 in February.

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/1049937e.pdf