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www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2006/05/08/housing-starts.html
Housing starts pull back
Last Updated Mon, 08 May 2006 12:48:29 EDT
CBC News
Housing starts fell by more than 13 per cent across the country in April – a sign, analysts say, that the country's red-hot housing market may be cooling.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said the annual rate of new housing starts dropped to 218,100 last month from 251,700 in March.
The federal housing agency said most of the drop was due to a 21 per cent decline in multiple starts – apartments and condos – in urban areas. Single starts were down 6.4 per cent.
"Multiple starts gave back all the gains registered [in March]," CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said in a news release.
"In contrast to the volatility in multiple starts, the pace of single starts is slowing consistently as expected."
Many housing market watchers have been expecting the new housing market to cool somewhat from its torrid pace of the past couple of years. But most are still predicting a gentle slowdown in house construction rather than a crash.
"We see evidence that the housing sector will continue moderating towards a soft landing amid a very solid employment picture and still-low borrowing costs, which will support the sector," BMO Nesbitt Burns economist Bart Melek said in a morning commentary.
TD Bank economist Sébastien Lavoie agreed. But he said the housing markets in central and Atlantic Canada are liable to weaken more than those in Alberta and British Columbia, where he noted that "builders have difficulties to keep up with demand amid strong population inflow."
Housing starts pull back
Last Updated Mon, 08 May 2006 12:48:29 EDT
CBC News
Housing starts fell by more than 13 per cent across the country in April – a sign, analysts say, that the country's red-hot housing market may be cooling.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said the annual rate of new housing starts dropped to 218,100 last month from 251,700 in March.
The federal housing agency said most of the drop was due to a 21 per cent decline in multiple starts – apartments and condos – in urban areas. Single starts were down 6.4 per cent.
"Multiple starts gave back all the gains registered [in March]," CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said in a news release.
"In contrast to the volatility in multiple starts, the pace of single starts is slowing consistently as expected."
Many housing market watchers have been expecting the new housing market to cool somewhat from its torrid pace of the past couple of years. But most are still predicting a gentle slowdown in house construction rather than a crash.
"We see evidence that the housing sector will continue moderating towards a soft landing amid a very solid employment picture and still-low borrowing costs, which will support the sector," BMO Nesbitt Burns economist Bart Melek said in a morning commentary.
TD Bank economist Sébastien Lavoie agreed. But he said the housing markets in central and Atlantic Canada are liable to weaken more than those in Alberta and British Columbia, where he noted that "builders have difficulties to keep up with demand amid strong population inflow."