October 2015 Housing Starts in Barrie

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 1,174 units in October, up from 724 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.

"The trend of housing starts rose in the month of October. The trend was up for all dwelling types, except for semis where the trend was flat. Apartments were the main factor pulling up the trend. Demand for apartments is coming from seniors who want to live independently in the Barrie city centre where they will be close to all amenities and also from investors who wish to benefit from the strong demand for rental housing in Barrie," said Abdellah Massaoudi, CMHC's Market Analyst for Barrie.

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 standalone monthly SAAR was 3,376 units in October, up sharply from 445 in September. This strong increase was mainly due to a high number of apartment starts in October. Before October, there had been no apartment starts in Barrie this year.

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.

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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.

Additional data is available upon request.

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A graph and tables are available at the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1031818e.pdf.