March 2016 Housing Starts in Peterborough

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending down at an annualized rate of 317 units in March compared to 399 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 housing starts trend in Peterborough CMA continued its downward movement in March. The four consecutive monthly declines reversed the strengthening trend witnessed during most of 2015. For the second month in a row, Selwyn Township was the only submarket in the CMA with housing starts. Meanwhile, the resale market continued to show some strength in March - a positive early indicator that demand for new homes will strengthen," said Olga Golozub, CMHC's Market Analyst for Peterborough.

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 multi-unit segment includes apartment, row and semi-detached homes.

The more volatile SAAR measure of total housing starts was 82 units in March, down from 272 units in February solely due to a decrease in 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.

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/1049953e.pdf