Pace Increases For New Home Construction

The government said that the home construction in Canada has picked up its pace in the course of last month, with help from Ontario. The momentum which the economy has taken up is proof enough to show how well Canada’s home construction is faring. The housing starts went up from a seasonally adjusted rate of 208,934 units in January to 210,207 last month as reported by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Based on the consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters, the units showed to be above expectations. Although single-family homes had a big jump together with detached homes in urban areas, multi-unit sector activity took a downfall.

Detached homes went up by 12.1 per cent from the previous month, with 71,871 single detached homes in February due to the push from Ontario, in the Toronto area where there has been a shortage. The increase of prices in the city and other parts of southern Ontario was caused by the lack of supply, mostly for detached homes. Nick Exarhos, an economist of CIBC made mention in his research note; “Prices are telling builders to build, that’s exactly what they’re doing. An upturn in (building) permit figures over the past several months suggests that momentum in buildings could continue for a few more months yet. Chalk up another consensus-beating result for the Canadian housing market.”

As reported by Statistics Canada, the worth of permit issued in January went up by 5.4 per cent to reach $7.6 billion from the month before, including $5.1 billion in the residential sector. The multiple-unit projects fell by 4.7 per cent to 121,164 nationwide for condos and apartments in an urban area during last month. An estimate of a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,172 units was made for Canada’s rural starts. The seasonally adjusted annual rates for the agency’s six-month average per month stood at 204,669 units in Canada during last month, after increasing in January from 200,225.

Bob Dugan, chief economist of CMHC said; “This winter has seen Canada’s national housing starts to trend upward, supported mostly by increased construction of homes in Ontario. New single-detached home construction in Ontario is reaching levels not seen in the province since July 2008 _ offsetting recent slowdowns in British Columbia.” The positive feedback and info from trade, jobs, and GDP along with the figures for building permit and housing start is proof enough that the economy is improving.