Housing starts in the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 1206 units in October, up from 903 in September 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.
“Apartments boosted total starts in October,” said Abella Massoudi, CMHC’s market analyst for Barrie. “Although apartment starts tend to occur infrequently in the Barrie CMA, this was the second consecutive month in which apartment starts were significant. Employment has strengthened and is supporting housing demand, and with a limited amount of land for new construction in the City of Barrie, apartments are becoming a bigger part of the housing market.”
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 2343 units in October, up from 1001 in September.
Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables
