Calgary housing starts rise slightly from previous month
Oil prices may be hitting new lows, but new housing builds were on the rise in Calgary last month.
According to the latest numbers from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), housing starts were trending at 14,381 units in Calgary's Census Metropolitan Area in November, up from 13,779 in October.
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"Housing starts trended higher in November as both single-detached and multi-family construction increased from a month earlier," says Richard Cho, CMHC's principal market analyst for Calgary.
Cho adds that while the pace of row housing starts in November had risen from the month before, apartment construction also increased – partly because of more rental units breaking ground.
The trend is calculated using a six-month moving average of the monthly, Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rates (SAAR) of total housing starts. 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.
The standalone monthly SAAR for Calgary was 16,179 units in November, up from 13,198 in October as single-detached and multi-family construction rose from the previous month.
But actual housing starts reached 12,277, compared to 16,291 during the same period last year.