Starts were 571 for June. Down quite a bit from the heyday levels.
Completions were very high in June at 2049. It seems completions are speeding up prior to the Olympics and as resources are shifted from starting new projects to completing existing projects.
The number of completed but unabsorbed units was over 2,500 compared with last June at under 1,400.
The number of units under construction has dropped precipitously from over 27,000 units in March 2008 to 19,700 now. By all accounts, construction employment is falling rapidly with the less experienced and less skilled workers getting let go. This upcoming winter could be especially grim for construction employment prospects. We will see if that translates into further real estate market weakness.
I like to add the long perspective from time to time. Here is the CMHC data from 1958.
As an aside but still relevant, rentingsucks provided a link in the comments to a great article on CMHC that I thought was well laid out with some great data and some interesting conclusions. Here it is: http://americacanada.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
Well, there we have it! This is the local economy's breaking point for this cycle.
Great link to the America Canada Blog article.
This provides perhaps the best reasoning I've heard on whyhome prices are rising in the face of a severe recession is the fact that the Fed. Gov't. is backing 100% of mortgage backed securities issued in the country.
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