THUNDER BAY – BUSINESS – Housing starts in Thunder Bay, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 269 units in November up from 263 units in October 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.
“November’s mild increase in housing starts’ trend in Thunder Bay is a continuation of the improvement seen in new construction since May. Nonetheless, the number of year-over-year housing foundations poured is clearly lower than in 2013. This weakening, due to weaker multi-family starts, is reflected in the declining SAAR for the last two months,” commented Warren Philp, CMHC 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 standalone monthly SAAR was 194 units in November down from 318 in October.
