October 2012 Housing Starts in St. Catharines-Niagara

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 8, 2012) - Housing starts in St. Catharines-Niagara, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 993 units in October, 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. The standalone monthly SAAR was 825 units in October, down from 1,554 in September.

"Row starts were down in October," said Paul Tessaro, CMHC's Market Analyst for St. Catharines-Niagara. "Over the past several months, row starts have begun to lag year-to-date row starts in 2011, after outpacing them in the first half of the year. Conversely, single-detached starts have kept pace with monthly construction activity in 2011 recently and are now down only slightly year-to-date, after being down by a larger magnitude at mid-year."

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

Single-detached starts added 66 actual units in October 2012. Multiple starts totalled 16 actual units in October. Year-to-date starts have reached 806 actual units, with single-detached construction representing slightly under two-thirds of all starts. Starts in Grimsby are down significantly in 2012.

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.

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.

To view the figures associated with this press release, please visit the following link:

http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/832784E.pdf

Additional data is available upon request.

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