According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Abbotsford/Mission bucked the national trend and posted an increase in housing starts in March. Still somehwat anemic, the number of singley family-detached homes continued its downward slide moving from 47 to 44 from Fenbruary to March.
Overall the numbers also represent a a startling change from a trend that goes back to 2005 of decreasing housing starts.
Housing starts in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 16,875 units 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)1 of housing starts.
“The trend was stable in March, with an increase in single detached home starts but a decline in multiple-family construction,” said Lance Jakubec, CMHC’s Senior Market Analyst.
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 stand-alone monthly SAAR was 20,096 units in March, compared to 14,464 units in February.
Housing starts in the Abbotsford-Mission CMA were trending at 518 units in March. The stand-alone monthly SAAR was 464 units in March.
Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: http://www.cmhc.gc.ca/en/hoficlincl/homain/stda/index.cfm
