March 2015 Housing Starts in St. John's

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwired - April 10, 2015) - Housing starts in St. John's, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 1,218 units in March compared to 1,266 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)¹ of housing starts.

"The trend in new home construction activity was relatively unchanged throughout the St. John's area in March. Total housing starts were moderately higher compared to a year ago due to only six more single-detached housing starts and there were no multi-residential starts," said Chris Janes, Senior Market Analyst with CMHC's Atlantic Market Analysis Centre. "New home demand remains low in 2015, due to recent economic weakness and uncertainty around commodity prices," added Janes.

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 566 units in March compared to 680 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.

¹All 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.

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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/1001144e.pdf