New home construction in the Greater Sudbury area for July continues to be strong with a 50 per cent increase over the same period last year, according to figures released by Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC).
The actual number of single-detached housing starts in July of this year were 39 units compared to 26 units last year.
“The strong month brings year-to-date total for single-detached units to 146, 46 per cent ahead of last year’s seven-month total,”says Warren Philp, CMHC market analyst for Northern Ontario.
Combined with the six multi-family units, total housing starts are on track to achieve the year’s forecast of 230 units for the Greater Sudbury market.
Philp says that the Sudbury market bottomed out in 1998 with only 165 starts so “we are coming off the bottom.”
However, he says that looking at the longer-term data “the numbers are nothing like the numbers we have seen in the Sudbury market, when you look back at 1985 through 1994.”
The peak for housing starts in Sudbury was in 1990 when there were 819 single-detached starts.
A stronger employment picture in Sudbury is contributing to the strength in housing starts in 2002, with an average of 72,700 people employed. In 1990 the number of people employed was 75,800.
“We have seen in Sudbury for the last three months, year-over-year employment gains in the market, and that’s encouraging, because prior to that we had 14 consecutive months of employment declines, year-over-year, for us to see continued strength in housing construction, we have to see continued and sustained growth in employment,” says Philp.
Philp says lower mortgage rates are also driving housing starts and the resale market; the average monthly carrying cost for 2002 is $815, which is the lowest figure since 1987 when it was $782.
The housing starts in the Greater Sudbury area reflect a larger national trend. Housing starts across the entire country are expected to reach a 13-year high in 2002.
