January 2017 Housing Starts in St. Catharines-Niagara

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 8, 2017) - Housing starts in the St. Catharines-Niagara Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending lower at 1,679 units in January compared to 1,872 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.

"The trend in housing starts continued to decline in January as a result of declining trends in starts for all dwelling types," said James Cuddy, CMHC's Market Analyst. "Since mid-2016, the gap between the prices of new homes versus existing homes has been widening. This gap has played a part in shifting demand away from new homes and towards existing homes. In addition, a modest recovery in new listings after they reached a record low early in 2016 is giving prospective homebuyers more options in the resale market and enabling the shift away from new housing. While housing starts in the region have been on a downward trend since August 2016, they remain above their 20-year average as a result of strong demand for housing in the CMA in general."

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 1,361 in January down from 1,593 in December.

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/1085137e.pdf.