October 2013 Housing Starts in Ottawa

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 8, 2013) - Housing starts in Ottawa Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 8,009 units in October compared to 7,953 units in September 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.

"Seasonally adjusted housing starts saw a slight moderation in October compared to September driven by a scaling back in apartment construction, while all other housing start types continued to trend higher. As a result, the year-to-date pace of housing activity strengthened over the same period last year," said Sandra Perez Torres, Senior Market Analyst for Eastern and Northern Ontario.

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.
In Ottawa, the standalone monthly SAAR was 6,584 units in October down from 7,744 units in September.

Approximately half of single-detached construction activity in October was split between Nepean (outside the greenbelt) and Kanata with the former capturing 26 per cent and the latter 23 per cent. The outskirts of the CMA seized another 22 per cent, a significant share in line with the trend of single-detached homes moving into the outskirts. Similarly, multifamily housing starts share increased to 16 per cent in the periphery(2) of Ottawa, while Cumberland and Nepean captured almost 20 per cent each.

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

Additional data is available upon request.

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(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.

(2) West Carleton, Clarence-Rockland and Russell.

A graph and tables are available at the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/910136e.pdf.