While housing starts in single detached homes rose 15 percent from 13 to 15 starts in the Abbotsford-Mission CMA, all other starts plummeted 86 percent leaving the are with an overall drop of 26 percent according to figures released by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Monday.
In January 2013 the area produced 82 housing starts while this year only 61 units broke ground.
Cities of similar size experienced much larger numbers:
Barrie, Ont – 80 in 2013, 143 in 2104, +79%
St John’s, Nfld – 76 in 2013, 55 in 2014, – 28%
Kelowna, BC – 54 in 2013, 54 in 2014, +/- 0%
BC as a whole – 1,579 in 2013, 54 in 1939, + 23%
Housing starts in Abbotsford have been on a relentless, precipitous and consistent decline for over a decade as economic development slows in the community which boasts some of the highest taxes in the Lower Mainland; the highest unemployment in Western Canada; an anemic record for building permits and a municipal treasury which owes itself more money than it has in its development reserves.
The City also boats some of the highest levels of HIV and Hep C along with a growing an world renowned homeless crisis marked by chicken manure poisonings, protests and law suits against an increasing population of homeless ,men and women living on the streets of the community.
For the full Housing Starts stats package click here.
January 2014 Housing Starts in Canada
Release February 10, 2014 — Housing starts in Canada were trending at 191,456 units in January compared to 194,518 in December, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)1 of housing starts.
“The trend in housing starts decreased slightly in January, while the inventory of newly completed and unabsorbed units saw a modest downward trend in the last half of 2013. This is consistent with our expectation that builders will continue to gradually adjust activity in order to manage their levels of inventory,” said Mathieu Laberge, Deputy Chief Economist at CMHC.
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 analyzing 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 standalone monthly SAAR was 180,248 units in January, a decrease from 187,144 in December. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 2.7 per cent in January to 163,158 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 6.0 per cent to 102,289 units in January while the single-detached urban starts segment increased by 3.4 per cent to 60,869 units.
In January, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased in the Prairies and in Ontario while decreasing in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and British Columbia.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,090 units.
Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables
As Canada’s national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of high quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making informed decisions.
Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC_ca
1All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts and the trend estimate, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) — that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. By removing seasonal ups and downs, seasonal adjustment allows for a comparison from one season to the next and from one month to the next. Reporting monthly figures at annual rates indicates the annual level of starts that would be obtained if the monthly pace was maintained for 12 months. This facilitates comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.
2 CMHC estimates the level of starts in centres with a population of less than 10,000 for each of the three months of the quarter, at the beginning of each quarter. During the last month of the quarter, CMHC conducts the survey in these centres and revises the estimate.