Ontario housing starts stay high, Canada trends lower
By Lucas on Feb 05, 2016
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its national housing starts data for January 2016, announcing that housing starts in Canada trended lower for the month.
The trend measure for January housing starts was 199,169 units, down from 203,304 in December 2015. The trend is a six month moving average of seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR).
“Housing starts trended down across the country with the exception of Ontario,” explains Bob Dugan, CMHC Chief Economist. “The overall decline is mostly attributable to a slowdown in the Prairies where the housing starts trend was at a 4-year low in January. The slowdown in new housing activity coincides with an unemployment rate that is at a 5-year high in Alberta.”
The standalone monthly SAAR for January was 165,861 units, a decrease from 172,533 last December. The SAAR of urban starts also went down 3% to 153,701 units. Multiple urban starts decreased 5.3% to 95,406, while single starts actually went up 1% to 58,295.
As Dugan mentions, the west side of Canada saw decreases in urban starts, while Ontario housing starts and Atlantic Canada experienced increases. The estimated amount of rural starts came in at 12,160 units.
It’s interesting that Ontario housing starts continue to trend higher. The only reason that the country’s housing starts were trending higher in December 2015 was because of Toronto’s busy condo market!
Housing starts in Toronto
In Toronto CMA, housing starts trended at 45,114 units in January 2016, an increase from 44,834 in December 2015. The standalone monthly SAAR was 25,329 units, up from 24,732 last December, mostly due to high apartment starts.
“With respect to Toronto housing starts, last year’s momentum continued throughout January,” says Dana Senagama, CMHC Principal Market Analyst for the GTA. “Low inventory in the resale market and increased new home sales over the past couple of years led to stronger starts of both low and high-rise units.”
There were 725 new apartment unit starts in the City of Toronto, giving it the most starts in the region. Brampton followed in second with mostly single-detached starts and row units starts. Milton was in third with many apartment unit starts.
Will we see the pace of housing starts stay steady here in Toronto through 2016?
