March 2016 Housing Starts in Guelph

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Guelph Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending higher at 1,058 units in March compared to 982 units in February, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

"The increase in the starts trend in March reflected the start of apartments for the first time in five months. Starts for other housing types remained relatively stable. Demand for new homes has been supported by strong employment growth, in-migration and a tight resale market," said Erica McLerie, Senior Market Analyst at CMHC.

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 SAAR of total housing starts was 1,245 units in March, up from 529 units in February, due to a higher level of single-detached and apartment starts. Actual starts for the first quarter of 2016 more than doubled from the same quarter in 2015 due to higher single-detached, townhouse and apartment starts.

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.

For more information, visit our website at www.cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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/1049921e.pdf