Ontario Home Starts Slow in May

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 8, 2012) - The number of Ontario urban* housing starts was trending at 78,300 units in May, according to 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 77,300 units in May, down from 94,600 SAAR units in April.

"Residential construction activity moved back closer to average levels observed over the past six months," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist. "Ontario home starts will move lower, but at a more moderate pace because there is a high backlog of already-sold apartments that have yet to be built. Fundamentally, modest job growth, and more balanced resale markets should temper activity ahead."

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. Analysing only SAAR data can be misleading as housing starts are largely driven by the apartment segment of the markets, 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.

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