TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) - Housing starts in the Guelph Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending lower at 865 units in April compared to 1,056 units 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.

"The decrease in the starts trend in April was due to lower starts for single-detached homes, townhouses, and apartments. Although builders have started several apartment structures over the past two months, the trend continued to decline since the current structures are smaller than those begun last year," said Erica McLerie, Senior Market Analyst at CMHC. "Demand for new homes has been supported by strong employment growth, in-migration and a tight resale market."

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 1,485 units in April, up from 1,239 units in March, due to a higher number of apartment starts. Actual starts for the first four months of 2016 more than doubled from the same period in 2015 due to higher 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.

(Ce document existe également en français)

Tables and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1053840a.pdf