THUNDER BAY – Real Estate – Housing starts in Thunder Bay are up. Housing starts in Thunder Bay, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 446 units in September up from 366 units in August 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.
“A strong month for construction of multi-family housing in September bolstered total housing starts for the month in Thunder Bay. Likewise, the 21 singles starts were just ahead of the 10-year average for the month although starts are slightly behind last year trend. CMHC’s forecast similar starts levels this year compared to 2012,” stated Warren Philp, CMHC’s Market Analyst for Thunder Bay.
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 standalone monthly SAAR was 849 units in September, up from 300 units in August.
