Canada's housing market experienced growth in May with construction beginning on 128,400 new homes, up from 117,600 one month earlier, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Bob Dugan, chief economist at the CMHC's Market Analysis Centre, said the growth is "broadly based, encompassing both the singles and multiples segments."
The CMHC predicts the growth will continue to improve through 2009 and over the next few years to eventually come in line with demand for new homes, which is estimated to be about 175,000 units per year.
In urban settings in Canada, new home construction projects increased by 11.1 per cent to 107,800 starts in May.
Urban multiple starts also rose 11.1 per cent to 60,900 units, along with urban single starts which went up by 11.1 per cent to 46,900 units in May.
BNN's Marty Cej said the housing numbers show some improvement, but the market is still very slow.
"The fact of the matter is those housing starts, those construction starts across the board, are down 40 per cent from last year, but they're much better than the preceeding month," Cej told CTV
"If you look at the economic recovery as a process... of things improving over time, then this could be just the beginning of that."
Here are some of the percentage increases in urban housing starts between April and May, broken down by province and region.
- Ontario: 22 per cent
- Quebec: 16.8 per cent
- Prairies: 16.8 per cent
- Atlantic Canada: 7.3 per cent
However, in B.C., New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, housing starts actually decreased in May, compared to April.
The CMHC estimates that construction began on 20,600 new homes in rural settings, in May.
