Real estate market observers may have experienced whiplash after seeing Canada housing starts plummet in March, only to skyrocket again in April, reports the website buzzbuzzhome.
The long winter was largely blamed for the drop off in construction activity in March, making the higher-than-expected 194,800 annualized units counted in April a dramatic jump from the 156,600 recorded the month before.
Scotiabank was the only large financial institution to read the situation as a continuation of the housing explosion, suggesting wryly that “the boom, rationally or otherwise, continues.” The report noted that March was the outlier, “a one-off weak spot analogous to other hiccups that we’ve seen in Canadian residential construction over the past few boom years.”
BMO Economics took a different track. The bank focused less on the recent month-to-month volatility and more on the big picture. The bank pointed out that housing starts in the first four months of the year averaged 179,600, “consistent with demographic demand and right in-line with where we see activity settling in for the next year or two.”
