May 2013 Housing Starts in Toronto

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 10, 2013) - Housing starts in the Toronto, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 34,386 units in May compared to 33,777 in April 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.

"With the condo apartment construction market opening the year on a softer note, the backlog of condo units sold for the most part in 2011, but not started, resulted in stronger numbers in May. This, in tandem with low-rise homes (singles, semis, and rows), pushed total housing starts higher," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist.

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 40,892 units in May, up from 27,319 in April.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making informed decisions.

Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC.ca.

¹ All 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.

This release is also available at www.cmhc.ca.

Additional data is available upon request.

(Ce document existe également en français)

To view the graph and table associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/879418FIG.pdf.