December 2014 Housing Starts in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan. 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 20,030 units in December compared to 19,511 units in November, 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 measure of housing starts moved higher in December due to small increases in construction of all types of homes except town houses," said Robyn Adamache, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst. "The actual number of housing starts in 2014 totalled 19,212 units, a slight increase over the previous year. Single-detached homebuilding accounted for most of this increase and was concentrated in the cities of Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond, Surrey and Vancouver."

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 standalone monthly SAAR was 21,325 units in December, up from 19,537 units in November, due to increases in single-detached, duplex and apartment starts, which offset a decline in town home starts.

Housing starts in the Abbotsford-Mission CMA were trending at 475 units in December, up from 431 units in November.

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 advice 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.

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A graph and tables are available at the following link: http://file.marketwire.com/release/986829.pdf