QUÉBEC CITY, QUÉBEC--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) - Housing starts in the Québec census metropolitan area (CMA) were trending at 4,294 units in April, compared to 4,084 in March, 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.

"Notwithstanding a small increase in April, housing starts in the Québec area continued to trend lower than the level recorded in 2015. Since the beginning of the year, activity has slowed in the conventional rental housing and condominium segments. These results were not surprising, given the rise in the vacancy rate for conventional rental housing and the significant inventories of new and existing condominiums," said Geneviève Lapointe, 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, analyzing 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 4,655 units in April, up from 2,765 in March. The significant change in the annual rate was due to the multiples segment, which often shows notable variations from one month to the next.

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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To view the graph and tables associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1053621e.pdf