August 2014 Housing Starts in Barrie

Housing starts in the Barrie Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) were trending at 806 units in August, up from 751 in July 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 trend in total home starts is relatively flat. Single-detached starts decreased from July, pulling down total home starts, but the rise in townhouse and semi-detached starts partially offset the single-detached drop. Barrie's economy continues to create more part-time jobs and not as many full-time jobs, which limits demand for new homes in Barrie," said Edgard Navarrete, CMHC's Market Analyst for Barrie.

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 monthly SAAR of housing starts was 712 units in August, down from 1,078 in July.

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