January 2015 Housing Starts in London

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the London Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending down at 1,890 units in January compared to 2,187 in December, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)^[1] of housing starts.

"The total starts trend continued to move down due to fewer apartment and row home starts over the past six months. The number of apartment starts can vary significantly over the course of a year. Because a single apartment project can represent many starts and can have a relatively long construction period, there are typically periods when there are many apartment starts and others when there are none. The current declining starts trend does not indicate declining demand for new housing in London, but rather reflects the variability associated with apartment construction," said Anthony Passarelli, Senior Market Analyst with 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 SAAR of total starts was 1,212 units in January, up slightly from 1,028 in December due to higher 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.

Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC_ca

^[1] All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts and the trend estimate, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) - that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. By removing seasonal ups and downs, seasonal adjustment allows for a comparison from one season to the next and from one month to the next. Reporting monthly figures at annual rates indicates the annual level of starts that would be obtained if the monthly pace was maintained for 12 months. This facilitates comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.

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/991170e.pdf