2007 just shy of record year

Metro area enjoyed third-best year on record, CMHC reports

EDMONTON - Edmonton-area housing starts fell in December, leaving the 2007 total just short of an all-time record.

The 578 monthly starts were down 15 per cent from December 2006 -- the second consecutive monthly decline.

"For all of 2007, total housing starts reached 14,888 units, the third-best year on record and only 82 units shy of 2006's performance," Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported Wednesday.

"Total housing starts across (metropolitan Edmonton) have now exceeded 11,000 units on an annual basis for an unprecedented sixth year in a row."

Comparing 2007 to 2006, starts of single-family houses were down 15.2 per cent while starts of multiple units were up 22 per cent.

Across Alberta, total housing starts for the year were up 64 per cent in Camrose, 57 per cent in Lethbridge, 40 per cent in Wood Buffalo and nine per cent in Red Deer. They were level in Grande Prairie and down 21 per cent in metropolitan Calgary.

CMHC analyst Lindsay Kendall said Wednesday that she thought Edmonton employment grew by as much as six per cent in 2007 -- compared to a forecast of only 5.3 per cent.

She expected new Edmonton-area condominium starts to continue rising in 2008.

But starts of single-detached houses will fall from about 7,700 in 2007 to about 6,700 in 2008, she said.

The price of new, single-detached houses, which averaged $440,000 in 2007, will hit $500,000 in 2008, she predicted.

The apartment construction price index will have risen about 30 per cent in two years, by the end of 2008, said Kendall, speaking in the Realtors Association of Edmonton Housing Forecast Seminar.

She expects apartment vacancies to average about 1.5 per cent in 2008, and average monthly rents for two-bedroom units to rise approximately 12 per cent to about $1,070


Ron Chalmers
The Edmonton Journal

Thursday, January 10, 2008