May Housing Starts Declined in the St. Catharines-Niagara CMA

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 8, 2012) - New residential construction in the St. Catharines-Niagara CMA declined last month compared to May 2011 according to preliminary data released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Housing starts declined to 76 in 2012 compared to 132 in 2011.

"The higher-end market remained strong into May in Niagara-on-the-Lake where the average new home consistently sells at a price higher than the CMA average" said Alexander Bonnyman, Market Analyst with CMHC. "Niagara-on-the-Lake remains a popular location for retirement and executive homes within the Region. Starts in this town through the first 5 months of 2012 were up almost a quarter over the same period in 2011. This gain was primarily as a result of single detached starts."

A substantial proportion of the year-over-year decline in total starts in the CMA is attributable to apartment starts. There have been no apartment starts to date in the CMA. Row homes through the first four months of 2012 pointed to increasing popularity for row homes as an affordable higher-density option. May was the first month in 2012 where row home starts did not continue to trend up in their proportion of overall starts. Row homes starts in May, at 23% of total starts in the CMA, were slightly above their five-year average proportion of total starts.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of high 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.

For more information, visit www.cmhc.ca or call 1-800-668-2642. CMHC Market Analysis standard reports are also available free for download at CMHC Housing Market Information.

To view the statistics associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/CMstatsE.pdf.

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