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TORONTO, August 11, 2015 — Housing starts in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) trended lower at 36,810 units in July compared to 39,108, 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)¹ of housing starts.

“Toronto housing starts decreased for the first time in five months, due to contracting apartment starts. However, strong sales of pre-construction condominium apartments over the past two years will convert to more starts as the year progresses,” said Dana Senagama, CMHC Principal Market Analyst for the GTA. “Low-rise starts remained robust. A tighter resale market also resulted in demand spilling over into the new home market.”

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 23,657 units in July, down from 30,623 units in June. This was the result of a decrease in apartment starts this month.

The City of Toronto maintained the highest number of starts, most of which were apartment units, but also a large number of single-detached and row starts. The City of Vaughan and Brampton had the next highest number of starts, which was made up of mostly single-detached homes.

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.

¹ All 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.

Information on this release:

Media Contact:

Angelina Ritacco
416-218-3320
aritacco@cmhc.ca

Follow CMHC on Twitter @CMHC_ca

Additional data is available upon request.

Source: CMHC
¹ Census Metropolitan Area
² The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR).
Detailed data available upon request

Source: CMHC

Source: CMHC

Article source: http://www.cmhc.ca/en/corp/nero/nere/2015/2015-08-11-0816b.cfm

Tags: Toronto House, Toronto Housing, Toronto Realtor

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