December 2014 Housing Starts in Toronto

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 9, 2015) - Housing starts in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended at 25,509 units in December compared to 25,537 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.

"Toronto housing starts stabilized in December after trending lower for most of the second half of the year. Toronto posted 28,929 new housing starts in 2014, a decline of 14 per cent from 2013, which is mainly attributable to a downturn in condominium apartment pre-construction sales between mid-2012 and mid-2013," said Andrew Scott, CMHC's Toronto Senior Market Analyst. "Nonetheless, stronger pre-construction sales in 2014, supportive economic conditions and mortgage rates near historic lows will likely translate into higher starts in 2015 for the GTA".

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 stand alone monthly SAAR was 26,398 units in December, up from 24,015 units in November. The increase was the result of more apartment starts this month.

The City of Toronto recorded the highest number of starts in December, made up of mostly apartments. The next highest municipality was Oakville, which saw a large number of apartment units begin construction. This was followed by Milton, where low-rise construction remained on its robust pace.

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.

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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.

This release is also available at www.cmhc.ca

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/986898e.pdf.