May 2016 Housing Starts in Guelph

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Guelph Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending higher at 1,232 units in May compared to 861 units 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) of housing starts.

"The increase in total housing starts trend in May was due to higher apartment starts. The decrease in the trend for ground-oriented housing was more than offset by a rise in the trend for apartments," said Erica McLerie, Senior Market Analyst at CMHC. "Despite higher trending housing starts, over the longer term the supply of new homes has been trending closer to long-term demand for new housing based on employment and population growth."

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 multiples segment includes apartments, rows and semi-detached homes.

The SAAR of total housing starts was 2,728 units in May, up from 1,489 units in April, due to a higher number of apartment units being started. Actual starts for the first five months of 2016 increased 94 per cent from the same period in 2015 due to more apartment 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/1058160e_LINK.pdf