March 2016 Housing Starts in Barrie

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 1,902 units in March, slightly up from 1,843 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.

"The trend of housing starts rose in March, due to an increase in the singles trend. The City of Barrie continued to lag behind the Town of Innisfil and the Township of Springwater in the number of starts. The Town of Innisfil has attracted builders who started different housing types that were previously limited to the City of Barrie," said Abdellah Massaoudi, CMHC's Market Analyst for Barrie.

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, analyzing 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 standalone monthly SAAR was 785 units in March, down from 957 in February. This decrease is due to the decreased number of all housing types in seasonally adjusted numbers.

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/1049907e.pdf