THUNDER BAY – The housing market in Thunder Bay continues to expand. According to preliminary data released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), there were 26 single-detached Thunder Bay starts in August, up from 16 counted in August 2011.
“The 38 total starts comprised of 26 single-detached starts and 12 apartment starts combined to outpace the 16 single-detached units and ten apartments started in August, 2011. The tightening rental market is prompting small scale developers to consider rental four-plexes as a way of responding to the demand for rental accommodation,” said Warren Philp, CMHC’s Northern Ontario Market Analyst.
Housing starts in Canada were trending at 222,900 units in August, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)1 of housing starts. The standalone monthly SAAR was 224,900 units in August, up from 208,000 in July.
“The increase in housing starts in August was the result of a few, large, multi-unit projects in the Greater Toronto area. This increase is primarily a reflection of the high level of pre-sales in some of these large multi-unit projects in late 2010 and early 2011, which is in line with job gains at that time,” said Mathieu Laberge, Deputy Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “The higher level of starts recorded in Atlantic Canada and British Columbia in August reflect low levels of activity in July rather than an increasing trend that was registered in August. Overall, moderation in housing starts activity is still expected for the remainder of 2012 and 2013.”
For some markets, 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 seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased by 10.2 per cent to 205,900 units in August. Urban single starts remained relatively unchanged in August at 64,300 units, while multiple urban starts increased by 15.5 per cent to 141,600 units.
August’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased by 47.5 per cent in Atlantic Canada, by 20.4 per cent in Ontario, by 18.2 per cent in British Columbia and by 1.3 per cent in the Prairies. Urban starts decreased by 9.8 per cent in Québec.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 19,000 units in August.