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EDMONTON – Housing starts fell again in the Edmonton region for February with no growth in activity foreseen until at least the summer, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said Monday.
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Multiple-unit starts led the decline with a near-86-per-cent drop from February of last year, according to preliminary CMHC figures. Multi-unit starts across the Capital Region totalled 64 units last month compared to 449 started in the same month a year ago.
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8 _; p+ \: k- M* y“Developer unease over rising condo apartment inventories will cause multi-unit starts to be lower this year than last,” said Richard Goatcher, CMHC senior market analyst for Edmonton.* _! p! U( `( I0 e1 o
7 T% J2 A* p8 j( w4 nIn the single-detached market, shovels went into the ground for 149 homes in February — a 39 per cent drop from the 243 units started a year ago.6 d, @, v! |2 }" E/ d! }" L7 W9 e
6 o: N9 @" F- _$ }CMHC predicts single starts to remain slow throughout much of 2009. Building activity won’t pick up over the previous year’s pace until after mid-2009 — provided new house inventories head lower. Goatcher said it will likely take until 2010 for notable year-over-year increases in single starts.' t; G$ v+ ?1 D0 S
+ C |/ q& e; k: X& b4 N0 jTotal housing starts in Alberta’s seven largest centres totalled 574 units in February, down from 1,867 a year ago, according to CMHC. Grande Prairie was the only city reporting a year-over-year increase in starts. |
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