Ontario Apartment Starts Remain Elevated in July

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug. 9, 2016) - Housing starts in the Ontario region were trending at 74,926 units in July, up from from 72,677 units in June, 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 Ontario residential construction trend moved higher for a second consecutive month. The increase in July was due to the more volatile apartment sector and to a lesser extent row homes. Both condominium and purpose-built rental construction remained elevated. Declining affordability, less choice in the apartment resale market and low rental vacancy rates continue to support higher density residential construction investment", said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist.

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 SAAR of total urban housing starts declined to 72,594 units in July, down from 84,784 units in June. Over half of Ontario urban centers posted decreases in July. For the period ending July 2016, Ontario urban home starts are running 19 per cent higher versus the same period one year ago.

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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A table and a graph are available at the following address: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1065259a.pdf