Toronto Housing Starts in March

April 13, 2010

Numbers by Eric Hart

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation have released fresh data about the housing starts in Toronto Census Metropolitan Area for March. After a large increase in February, the month of March was very disappointing.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of total housing starts for the Toronto area decreased to 26,300 units this past month. In February, the number was 22.9 percent higher, which equates to 34,100 units. Single detached houses performed well in March, increasing to 13,800. That means a 4.5 percent rise from the February level of 13,200. On the other hand, the situation last month was not good news for multiple-family houses. In February there were 20,900 housing starts, but it is reported this dropped by 40.2 percent to only 12,500.

Shaun Hildebrand, Senior Market Analyst of CMHC for the GTA predicted that very soon, due to still higher home prices and less affordable housing in Toronto “demand will shift towards condominiums and construction will again begin to favor high rise projects.” I have to say I’m not very pleased with the results but what else can we expect with the rising property prices?