Red Deer housing starts down 63 per cent: CMHC

By Advocate staff

Published: January 09, 2009 11:04 AM


The news is unlikely to surprise anyone who followed Red Deer’s residential construction industry last year.

Housing starts in the city fell 63 per cent from 2007 levels, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. statistics that were released on Friday.

The 572 projects started during the year consisted of 367 single-detached homes and 205 units in multi-family buildings.

In 2007, Red Deer recorded 1,558 housing starts: 974 single-detached and 584 multi-family homes.

Although 2007 was a record year for residential construction in Red Deer, the 2008 figures are also significantly lower than CMHC’s Red Deer numbers for the previous five years. In 2006, the city had 1,095 single-detached and 334 multi-family starts for a total of 1,429; in 2005, the tallies were 886 and 384 for a total of 1,270; in 2004, they were 789 and 554 for a total of 1,343; in 2003, they were 779 and 345 for a total of 1,124; and in 2002, they were 948 and 537 for a total of 1,485.

Jonas Neidert, president of the Central Alberta branch of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, said earlier this week that he thinks the outlook for 2009 is better. Concerns about the economy have prompted many people to postpone buying a home, he suggested, which could mean a market rebound this year.

He added that there is also an improved selection of residential lots in the city this year.

In the final month of 2008, there were 42 single-detached and no multi-family starts in Red Deer. That compares with 46 single-detached and two multi-family starts in December 2007.

Of the 14 urban areas in Alberta surveyed by CMHC, 13 had fewer housing starts in 2008 than in 2007, and the decrease for these was at least 15 per cent. But only two, Cold Lake and Okotoks, had a greater decline than Red Deer.

In Cold Lake, housing starts plummeted 77 per cent in 2008. Okotoks experienced a 72 per cent slide, while in the Edmonton metropolitan area the drop was 56 per cent.

Camrose was off 47 per cent, Medicine Hat 42 per cent, Canmore 40 per cent, Grande Prairie 38 per cent, Wetaskiwin 37 per cent, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (which includes Fort McMurray) 31 per cent, Lethbridge 24 per cent, and the Calgary metropolitan area 15 per cent.

Housing starts on the Alberta side of Lloydminster were up 83 per cent, but on the Saskatchewan side of the community they were down 33 per cent.

The combined housing starts for all 14 communities in 2008 were down 34 per cent from 2007.

CMHC also provided 2008 housing start figures for a number of smaller municipalities, including several in Central Alberta. These revealed that there were 107 single-detached and 216 multi-family starts in Sylvan Lake, 77 single-detached and 49 multi-family starts in the town of Lacombe, 117 single-detached starts in Mountain View County, 85 single-detached starts in Clearwater County, 76 single-detached and four multi-family starts in Red Deer County, and 52 single-detached starts in Lacombe County.

No comparable statistics for 2007 were available.