September 2016 Housing Starts in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 11, 2016) - Housing starts in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending up at 4,200 units in September compared to 3,741 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) of housing starts.

"Total housing starts trended higher in September as starts for all housing types were higher. Single-detached starts are trending at the highest level in more than six years," said Erica McLerie, Senior Market Analyst at CMHC. "Job growth, in-migration and a very tight resale market have translated into strong demand for new homes."

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 SAAR of total housing starts was 4,799 units in September, up from 3,560 units in August. The increase in the SAAR measure was due to a higher number of single-detached and apartment starts. Actual total housing starts for the first three quarters of 2016 reached 2,801 units, up 14.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2015.

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.

For more information, visit our website at www.cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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/1071998e.pdf.