March 2016 Housing Starts in St. John's

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in St. John's, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 838 units in March compared to 914 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 measure in housing starts declined in March in the St. John's area. Starts were weak, with seven single-detached housing starts versus 15 in March of 2015 and four multiple housing starts compared to none a year ago. "A lack of economic growth, mostly due to low oil prices, continued to restrain new home construction activity in March," said Chris Janes, Senior Market Analyst with CMHC's Atlantic Market Analysis Centre.

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 352 units in March compared to 581 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.

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/1049833e.pdf