BC’s urban housing starts taking expected dip

So far, the number of housing starts in urban areas across the Province have declined from 2016.

There were 35,683 starts in January, which is a drop from December’s 37,614. It’s still early in the year, but Christina Butchart with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has analyzed recent trends and notes last year saw record housing starts in many areas. She’s not concerned with this recent drop back to normal.

“2016 was a really strong year for housing construction in BC and we’ve started to see that trend ease a little bit so in January we saw housing starts decline. This decline was seen in both single detached and multi-family construction.”

Prince George bucked the trend to begin the year, but Butchart expects the city to fall in line soon.

“We did see six housing starts, up from three last year. Overall, the story in Prince George has been somewhat consistent with the Province so we are looking for activity in 2017 and 2018 to move more back in line with what would be more average levels.”