Canadian Building Permits Down, But Housing Starts Up
I've been a lazy blogger this week. Not much in the way of big Vancouver real estate news, but I've been meaning to get out this post. On Monday this week Canadian building permit numbers for February were released and on Tuesday the Canadian housing starts for the first quarter of 2008 were released.
Building Permits Are Down
RBC reported that:
Canadian building permits came in much weaker than expected in February, dropping 1% in the month. Market expectations had been for a 1.3% increase. The disappointing picture for the near-term outlook for construction was darkened further as January’s plunge was revised down to a drop of 3.5% from the initially reported 2.9% decline. Building permits have now fallen for four consecutive months.
They did go on to say that:
The weakness was largely concentrated in Ontario where permits plunged 16%, with the non-residential component off a massive 44.9%. Residential building permits in the province provided some offset, rising 21.3%. If Ontario were to be excluded from the national total, building permits would have surged 9.8%.
Local, local, local. What is happening in Ontario is almost irrelevant to us here.
Meanwhile Housing Starts At Near Record Levels
CMHC reported that Vancouver housing starts were higher than in any first quarter since 1990. In fact multiple unit starts had their best first quarter ever with over 4000 units started.
There does seem to be a feeling out there that the market is softening. Now remember it was going 100 MPH, so slowing down does not mean stoppping, it just means slowing down. There are still lots of buyers out there and with interest rates still nice and low I don't see them going out there. The market is more local than ever with big differences in demand from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
Have a great weekend!
Matthew Collinge: Vancouver Real Estate Agent