I apologize for being a little sparse with the posting of late. Having a newborn baby at home is quite tiring and work has been very demanding the last couple weeks which leaves little time for providing quality analysis and posting. Jesse has really provided some exceptionally well thought out posts lately and I encourage you to read them. Thanks Jesse.
The CMHC released housing market data for March 2009 and here are the highlights.
Housing starts are continuing a deep downward slide in the Vancouver area and March 2009 saw only 509 new dwellings started.
Completions are continuing at an expected high pace with 1160 completions during March. There is seasonality to completions with more completions occuring in the summer on average.
The number of units under construction is falling dramatically at 24,446 down from a cycle high of just over 27,000.
The number of completed but unabsorbed units is now at 2,345 units up from 1,413 one year ago. We aren't even half way through the down cycle yet so I am looking for things to get much worse from here.
1 comment:
Throw the speculator owned condos on top of the under construction line and it would probably be off the chart.
Also an interesting point is that the under construction line is higher than the starts line and completion line for probably the longest time it has ever been. I am not economist but people in construction might want to look at finding another career as it doesnt look like there will be the boatloads of work we are used to seeing in the past few years.
Completions will probably spike soon, maybe round 3 of the mac bulk sales? Even though round 2 is still sputtering and far from the finish line.
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