July 2015 Housing Starts in Kingston

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug. 11, 2015) - Housing starts in the Kingston Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 512 units in July compared to 516 in June 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 housing starts for the month of July remained flat compared to the previous month. The downward trend in single and semi-detached homes has been partly offset by an upward trend in apartment starts. The elevated levels of listings of homes compared to sales in the first half of the year may have motivated some builders to sit on the sidelines and wait for more favorable market conditions and sales to pick up before they start supplying new units, particularly single-detached homes. In addition, there are the early signs of a possible shift towards high rise structures in consumer preferences in the city of Kingston which is in line with the increase in the urban residential density of the recent years due to greater intensification." said Aris Gianneskis, Market Analyst for Kingston.

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 standalone monthly SAAR was 278 units in July down from 489 in June, mainly due to fewer single-detached starts and no townhomes starts in the month of July.

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.

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 table and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1020883e.pdf