THUNDER BAY – Housing starts in the city have slowed after a few peak years.
Canada Mortgage and Housing is reporting new builds were down last year compared to 2013, which was slightly down after the 2012 boon.
CMHC market analyst Warren Philp said single detached starts were off 13 per cent with a total of 28 per cent fewer units added to the city’s housing supply than the year prior.
“The year started off slow with the cold winter we had,” Philp said. “Although it did pick up in the second half of the year it wasn’t enough to really cause us to overtake the numbers we saw in 2013.”
The overall downtick was primarily as a result of fewer multi-family units, where there were only 66 new units compared to the last three years each having more than 100.
Philp attributes the decrease in starts to multiple factors, including a one per cent drop in the city’s employment rate as well as lessened growth in average weekly earnings.
One of the most significant causes is the ongoing shift in the city’s real estate market. Philp said supply is beginning to catch up to demand of houses available for sale, which is taking a chunk out of new construction.
He expects the upcoming period from March until June can dictate the path of the real estate market in the near-future.
“The increased listings on the resale market may have curbed some interest in new construction in 2014,” Philp said.
“It’s really going to be interesting to see what happens in the spring…That’s going to be a real bellwether for what’s to come not just for 2015 but even for the next couple of years.”
