Ontario Home Starts Move Higher in August

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 11, 2012) - Ontario urban* housing starts were trending at 81,200 units in August according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)** of housing starts. The standalone monthly SAAR was 86,900 units in August, up from 72,200 SAAR units in July. While single detached construction edged higher, multi family home construction grew most in August.

"While the apartment sector continued to fuel residential construction activity in August, conventional rental construction is also adding to activity so far in 2012," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist. "Uncertainty in financial markets, lower rental apartment vacancies and the rising cost of ownership housing has supported demand and construction of higher density housing in recent years. Fundamentally, modest job growth across the province, more balanced resale markets and a high level of units under construction should temper momentum in the multi-family home sector"

For some markets, 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 apartment segment of the market, which can be quite volatile from one month to the next.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on over 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of high quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable homes. 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/817996.pdf

*Refers to provincial starts in areas with population 10,000+ (urban)

**Starts figures in this release, other than actual starts, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)—that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels

(Ce document existe également en français)