They provide a sign that things are not nearly as bad as first thought. Housing starts were off in October, according to figures released Tuesday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, but not by as much as the experts had feared.
Saws were buzzing and hammers were tapping out homes at the rate of 207,600 annualized units from September’s 208,800. Market expectations were for a bigger drop, of 6.1% to 195,000. A report from the Royal Bank attributes the small decline to a drop in urban single starts, with urban multiples and rural starts increasing.
The nation's biggest bank also says Tuesday’s report maintains most of September’s 8.5% gain, meaning that the pace of housing construction remains brisk.
The bank also points to the pace of housing starts in Canada, which has picked up substantially over the year, increasing by 8.3% and 6.3% in Q2 and Q3, respectively, which the report chalks up to to upside surprises in the volatile urban multiples component.
The 123,000-start average pace in urban multiple starts over the past two months has been substantially faster than the 103,000 pace maintained over the first eight months of this year.
"We expect," the report concludes, "that this component will eventually revert back to this more sustainable pace. Our forecast assumes that housing starts will average 182,000 in 2012."
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