Ontario Home Starts Slow in November

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 8, 2011) - The Ontario preliminary Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of home starts across urban* centres moved lower in November. An estimated 49,800** residential housing units got started in the latest month, down from 71,800 units in October. Multi-family home construction, which includes semi detached homes, townhomes and apartments moved sharply lower while single detached construction edged higher. Still, for the year ending November, new home construction in Ontario urban areas is running 11 per cent above levels this time last year.

"Ontario apartment construction activity finally succumbed to the force of gravity in November dropping to its lowest level since early this year. Condo apartment construction remained strong for most of this year thanks to higher home ownership costs, lower rental vacancy rates and increasing investor interest. However, uncertainty in global financial markets, slower job growth and more choice in resale markets should temper the pace of construction activity in 2012," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist.

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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* 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

To view the tables and graph associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/cme128oi.pdf.