October 2012 Housing Starts in Toronto

Real Estate — November 8, 2012

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 8, 2012) - Housing starts in Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 47,600 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. The standalone monthly SAAR was 45,900 units in October, up from 39,900 in September.

"Construction activity is still being supported by the delayed impact of strong new home sales in 2011 and earlier this year. A shift towards less expensive housing development was visible in the latest numbers, which showed that apartments in Toronto and singles in Brampton accounted for over half of all starts," said Shaun Hildebrand, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst for Toronto.

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.

Single detached starts added 1,058 actual units while multiple starts totalled 2,865 actual units in October 2012, both slightly lower than the numbers reported in October of last year. Year-to-date total starts have reached 40,540 actual units, which is ahead of the pace set last year due to stronger multiple starts.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. 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.

^[1] All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts and the trend estimate, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) - that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. By removing seasonal ups and downs, seasonal adjustment allows for a comparison from one season to the next and from one month to the next. Reporting monthly figures at annual rates indicates the annual level of starts that would be obtained if the monthly pace was maintained for 12 months. This facilitates comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.

Additional data is available upon request.

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To view the figure associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/cm101.pdf

To view the second figure associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/cmhtable1.pdf

Contact Information

Market Analysis Contact:
Shaun Hildebrand
416-218-3466
shildebr@cmhc.ca

Media Contact:
Beth Bailey
416-218-3355
bbailey@cmhc.ca