January 2017 Housing Starts in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 8, 2017) - Housing starts in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending up at 4,634 units in January compared to 5,211 units 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) of housing starts.

"Total housing starts trended lower in January due to a decrease apartment starts. Apartment starts, after trending at the highest level in more than 18 months in December, pulled back to a more sustainable level in January. The trend for single-detached homes was slightly higher in January while the trends for semis and townhouses eased," said Erica McLerie, Senior Market Analyst at CMHC. Job and wage growth, in-migration and a very tight resale market are supporting the demand for new homes."

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 multiples segment includes apartments, rows and semi-detached homes.

The SAAR of total housing starts was 4,114 units in January, down from 9,647 units in December. The decrease in the SAAR measure was due to the decline in apartment starts 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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To view the graph and tables associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1085162e.pdf