May 2011 Housing Starts in Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - June 8, 2011) - Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reports that May housing starts in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) increased compared to the same month a year ago, totalling 1,991 homes. Most of these home starts were in Vancouver City, City of Richmond and City of Surrey.

"An increase in residential building permits during the latter half of last year and the first quarter of this year resulted in increased housing starts compared to 2010 levels," noted Robyn Adamache, CMHC's Senior Market Analyst. "So far this year, the increase in housing starts has been concentrated in multiple family dwelling types (semi-detached, row and apartment) in the Vancouver CMA," added Adamache.

The Abbotsford CMA reported 27 housing starts in May, down from the 44 housing starts recorded during the same month a year ago.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of total housing starts increased to 183,600 units in May, from 178,700 units in April. In British Columbia, May's seasonally adjusted rate of urban housing starts moved higher to 30,000 units from 22,500 units in the previous month.

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable homes. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making vital decisions.

For more information, and to download CMHC's housing reports, please visit CMHC's website at www.cmhc.ca/housingmarketinformation or call 1-800-668-2642.

To view the map and tables accompanying this press release please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/cmhcIMG.pdf

¹ All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts, are seasonally-adjusted annual rates (SAAR) – that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. This facilitates the comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.