Housing starts in the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 1155 units in March, down from 1266 in February according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.
“Housing starts continued to trend down for the third month,” said Abdellah Massaoudi, CMHC’s market analyst for Barrie. “Starts rose slightly in the townships of Innisfil and Springwater where single-detached homes are the dominant type of residential construction.
“In the City of Barrie, there were no starts,” he said in a news release. “The scarcity of land still persists, limiting the construction of single-detached homes. In addition, high-rise developments are volatile and starts vary widely from month to month.”
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 multiples segment includes apartments, rows and semi-detached homes.
The standalone monthly SAAR was 344 units in March, relatively unchanged from 352 in February. No multiple-unit homes were started in February.
Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables
As Canada’s authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and Information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.
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