TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 8, 2016) - Housing starts in the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending higher at 400 units in May compared to 243 units in April, 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.

"After continuously declining for five consecutive months, the trend for total housing starts sprang back to the level seen at the beginning of the year. The trend reversal was due to higher rental apartment starts. Developers are anticipating stronger rental demand in Peterborough due to a growing number of households headed by a person aged 65 and older," said Olga Golozub, CMHC's Market Analyst for Peterborough.

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 multi-unit segment includes apartment, row and semi-detached homes.

The more volatile SAAR measure of total housing starts was 1,360 units in May, considerably up from 28 units in April due to increases in single-detached and multi-unit home 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/1058187e.pdf