Canada housing starts top expectations.
Yesterday the statistics for Canadian housing starts came out. New home starts fell 4.6 percent in September from August but came in ahead of expectations, increasing investor optimism that the economy is pulling out of recession, data released on Thursday showed.
The number of starts in September topped the consensus expectations of analysts who had called for 148,000 starts.
“In a broader sense, Canadian homebuilding activity is clearly beyond the worst depths of this past spring and in trend recovery mode,” Scotia Capital economists Derek Holt and Karen Cordes said in a note.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts fell by 5.2 percent to 131,500 units in September. Starts for single
family homes rose 16.8 percent to 68,800 units, while new construction for multiple dwellings such as condos and
apartment buildings decreased by 21.4 percent to 62,700.
“The decline in housing starts in September is attributable to the volatile multiple starts segment,” said Bob Dugan,
chief economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Center.
“However, starts of single homes, which are a barometer of the trend in housing markets, climbed in September to reach their highest level so far this year.” This is all really great news for the housing market in Canada. It shows that we are starting to recover, and a slow steady recovery is what we all want. That kind of recovery is sustainable in the long run and will get us back to a place of prosperity before we know it.