TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 8, 2015) - Housing starts in the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending up at an annualized rate of 371 units in September compared to 307 in August, 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 total housing starts continued its upward direction in September 2015 with single-detached houses leading the way and apartments registering their first activity in two years as builders responded to last year's vacancy rate decline. Recent tightness in the resale market and growth in average weekly earnings has continued to support new housing demand for single-detached homes and townhouses," said Olga Golozub, CMHC's Market Analyst for Peterborough.

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 multi-unit segment includes apartment, row and semi-detached homes.

The more volatile SAAR measure of total housing starts was 582 units in September up from 396 in August, mainly due to an increase in both single-detached and apartment starts on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

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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Tables and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1027902e.pdf