March 2016 Housing Starts in St. Catharines-Niagara

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the St. Catharines-Niagara Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending lower at 1,671 units in March compared to 1,967 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 trend in total housing starts decreased in March due to fewer apartment starts, which exerted downward pressure on the overall trend," said Edgard Navarrete, CMHC's Market Analyst for St. Catharines-Niagara. "Single and semi-detached housing starts increased but not enough to off-set the downward trend in apartment starts. Employment and earnings growth continued to support ground-oriented home ownership."

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 2,499 in March up from 1,654 in February. Increased single-detached and semi-detached housing starts continued to lift the SAAR. Row housing starts decreased. There was no apartment starts in March. Apartment starts are volatile and can affect total starts from month to month.

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/1049939e.pdf