March 2016 Housing Starts Strong in British Columbia

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in British Columbia's urban areas were trending at 35,914 units in March compared to 33,886 units 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.

"Housing starts in British Columbia trended higher in March as builders responded to low levels of new and existing inventories of homes available for purchase," said Carol Frketich, CMHC's BC Regional Economist. "While Vancouver accounts for a large share of this year's increase in housing starts to date, the majority of large centres tracked reported a higher number of housing starts in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the first quarter of 2015."

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 for urban starts in British Columbia was 39,838 units in March, compared to 50,067 units 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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To view the graph and tables accompanying this press release please click on the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/BCHS48.pdf