TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) - Housing starts in the St. Catharines-Niagara Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending higher at 1,753 units in April compared to 1,670 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 trend in total housing starts increased in April due to greater semi-detached, row, and apartment starts," said Edgard Navarrete, CMHC's Market Analyst for St. Catharines-Niagara. "The trend for single-detached starts in April decreased only slightly and remained nearly flat compared to March. Wage growth remained comfortably above inflation for the seventh month in a row and protected homebuyers' spending power allowing them to continue to purchase new homes."

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 2,023 in April down from 2,519 in March. Apartment and row starts increased but not sufficiently to offset the decreased single-detached and semi-detached 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/1053850a.pdf