Ontario Home Starts Slow in June

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 10, 2012) - The number of Ontario urban* housing starts stabilized at 78,500 units in June, according to preliminary data released today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) ** of housing starts. The standalone monthly SAAR was 70,700 units in June, down from 77,700 SAAR units in May.

"Ontario residential construction activity moved lower to levels more in line with demographic trends," said Ted Tsiakopoulos, CMHC's Ontario Regional Economist. "In the short term, starts may diverge from demographic demand because of pent-up consumer demand, above average job growth or rising construction of denser housing types which take longer to start after a sale. Fundamentally, modest job growth across the province, more balanced resale markets and a declining backlog of apartment sales not yet constructed should help temper activity ahead."

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. Analysing only SAAR data can be misleading as housing starts are largely driven by the apartment segment of the market, which can be quite volatile from one month to the next.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on over 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of high quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable homes. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making informed decisions.

For more information, visit www.cmhc.ca or call 1-800-668-2642. CMHC Market Analysis standard reports are also available free for download at CMHC Housing Market Information.

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