Local housing starts plummet

By Advocate staff

Published: December 08, 2008 7:09 PM Housing starts in Alberta’s seven largest cities this year are down 37 per cent from the same point in 2007, with the decline most pronounced in Red Deer.

Statistics issued by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. on Monday revealed that residential construction starts in the city from January to November numbered 530, which is 65 per cent lower than for that period in 2007, when the tally was 1,510.

So far this year, work has begun on 325 single-detached homes and 205 units in multi-family buildings, as compared with 928 single-detached and 582 multi-family projects during the first 11 months of 2007.

Housing starts in Alberta’s other major cities during the past 11 months were down as well. Building in the Edmonton metropolitan area fell 56 per cent, in Medicine Hat the decline was 46 per cent, Grande Prairie dropped 40 per cent, Lethbridge and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo were each off 23 per cent, and the Calgary metropolitan area experienced a 15 per cent decline.

During the month of November, there were 27 starts on single-detached homes and 35 starts on multi-family units in Red Deer, for a total of 62. This was down 60 per cent from November 2007, when work was started on 97 homes: 55 single-detached and 97 multi-family.

Elsewhere in the province, November starts in the Edmonton metropolitan area were 74 per cent lower than a year ago, in Medicine Hat the figure was down 66 per cent, in Grande Prairie it declined 27 per cent, in the Calgary metropolitan area the drop was 26 per cent, and in Lethbridge it was 22 per cent.

November housing starts in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo was one per cent higher than a year ago.