September 2015 Housing Starts in Ontario

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 8, 2015) - Housing starts in the Ontario region were trending at 72,001 units in September, up from 67,367 units in August, 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 Ontario residential construction trend in September continued to breach new highs not seen since 2012. Despite a pullback in semi-detached construction, all other dwelling types drove trend activity to a five year high. While the pace of construction should ease from elevated levels in recent months, an improving job market, less choice in the resale market and strong apartment ownership and rental demand will continue to support starts activity across the province," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist.

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 SAAR of total urban housing starts remained elevated at 89,114 units in September, down from 92,965 units in August. Ontario urban housing starts for the period ending September are running 19 per cent above levels for the same period one year ago.

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.

Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC_ca

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.

(Ce document existe également en français)

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