THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay has bucked the Ontario trend when it comes to housing starts in May. Above average starts activity in May in Thunder Bay CMA lifted total starts twelve per cent so far this year according to preliminary data released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The twenty-two single-detached units, six semi-detached and four row units topped last May’s total of 24 units. Year-to-date single-detached starts now total 37 units, three behind last year’s count for the same period.
May’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased by 33.3 per cent in British Columbia, by 13.5 per cent in Québec, by 11.0 per cent in the Atlantic region, and by 10.0 per cent in the Prairie region. Ontario posted a decrease of 22.9 per cent over the same period.
“May new construction activity was spread across the city from Current River to Neebing ward,” stated Warren Philp, Northern Ontario Market
Analyst with CMHC. “The bulk of single-detached activity still takes place in Red River, McIntyre and Neebing wards coinciding with existing lot supply.”
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 183,600 units in May, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This is up from 178,700 units in April 2011. “Housing starts increased modestly in May due to an increase in multiple construction in most provinces and in rural starts,” said Bob Dugan, Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “The increase in multiples and rural starts was partly off-set by a decrease in single starts.”
The Canada wide seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased by 0.8 per cent to 161,000 units in May. Urban multiple starts were up by 4.0 per cent in May to 100,000 units, while single urban starts decreased by 4.1 per cent to 61,000 units.
Rural starts across Canada were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 22,600 units in May.