Key takeaways:
- Housing begins in the region’s urban centers up 34.6% year-over-year.
- According to Statistics Canada, housing commencements in Alberta seasonally changed, rising by 15.2 percent to a seven-year high of 46,456 units in May.
The noise of hammers and saws also fills Alberta’s cities as flooding oil prices fuel a new building boom in the region.
According to Statistics Canada, housing begins in Alberta seasonally adjusted yearly, rising by 15.2 percent to a seven-year high of 46,456 units in May.
Taking rural places out of the equation and looking at urban centers with a population of 10,000 or more, housing beginnings in Alberta were up 34.6 percent year-over-year. By comparison, housing starts in Canada rose 3.4 percent over the same time.
“Calgary’s been showing the way in parts of the activity,” stated Scott Fash, executive director of the Building Industry and Land Development Association Alberta (BILD Alberta).
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“Edmonton’s a little behind, but they also notice the most begins since 2015. But Calgary is just going nuts and successful.”
Economists have long considered housing forms as an essential financial indicator, both because new home purchases are an indication of customer confidence but also because homebuilders are doubtful about starting a project that will take some months to complete unless they believe they’ll still be able to sell it at the end of that term.
In Alberta, the point that housing starts are now the most elevated they’ve been since March of 2015 speaks volumes regarding the mood in a region that is arising from years of financial downturn.
New home buildings in Alberta cities roared from 2010 to 2014, a period when the region’s commodity-driven economy was booming. But the oil price boom in late 2014 settled the province into a slump and delayed construction.
Source – cbc.ca
