April 2013 Housing Starts in Ontario

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 8, 2013) - Housing starts in the Ontario region were trending at 55,875 units in April, compared to 59,422 in March, 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.

"Ontario residential construction activity slowed further in April due to declining row and apartment starts. Slower job growth, more choice in the resale market and a high volume of units under construction restrained residential starts since the spring of 2012. While below trend readings in starts have persisted, this will be temporary owing to continued stability in the low density segment of the housing market. Furthermore, rising home completions should eventually free up some labour to commence construction on a backlog of apartment structures that sold early last year," 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 standalone monthly SAAR was 44,874 units in April, down from 52,700 units in March. While residential construction activity continued to cool across the province, declines were more pronounced outside of the GTA in April.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. 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.

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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To view the graph and tables associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/872211e_Figs.pdf.