Housing starts cool in Calgary
Posted May 25, 2015 1:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Expect home construction to slow further in Calgary this year and into next.
Canada Mortgage and Housing has released its spring outlook, and is predicting home starts will drop to 13,200 this year and 11,500 in 2016.
CMHC analyst Richard Cho tells 660News, slower employment growth and less migration from other parts of the country is pushing demand down.
“On top of that, we’re also expecting to see more supply in the resale market, giving buyers more choice,” he said. “As well, there’s an expectation that new home inventories will rise, holding back production in 2015;”
Prices are forecast to fall 2.7 percent this year to an average of $448,000 but Cho says they should start to inch up again in 2016, to an average to $253,000.
The CMHC is also predicting a record number of more than 10,000 condo units started last year will flood the market, and construction in the sector is expected to fall off to just 6,000 by next year.
