February 2015 Housing Starts in Ontario

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the Ontario region were trending at 52,508 units in February, down from 53,545 units in January, 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 trend in residential construction activity continued to ease in February - reaching its lowest level since 2009. February activity was likely impacted by colder than normal weather which put some projects on hold. The underlying starts trend should stabilize and gather strength through the year thanks to an improving Ontario economy, strong resale markets and a backlog of apartment sales that have yet to break ground," 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 was 42,617 units in February, down from 58,785 units in January. Ontario urban housing starts are running 16 per cent below levels for the same period one year ago. The decline in February was broad based with 12 out of 15 metropolitan markets posting declines.

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.

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(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.

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A table and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/995802_ENG.pdf