The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Canada Mortgage says the annual pace of housing starts in Canada edged down one per cent in August compared with July.
The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in August came in at 252,787 units compared with 255,232 in July.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift, Anthony Passarelli, Senior Analyst, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) says Windsor has had an average year so far compared to the last ten or so years.
"Housing starts activity is down compared to last year, which was quite a strong year in Windsor, and a lot of that has to do with a lot less activity in the single detached housing segment and with mortgage rates being hiked so many times over the last year and a half or so we're seeing that translate into less activity for the more expensive types of new homes."
Passarelli says so far this year, there's been just under 900 home construction starts here, but we're still seeing a fair bit of activity in the apartment and townhome side of construction in the city and LaSalle.
He says with the mortgage rate hikes, it all comes down to affordability.
"So either they've shelved their plans or switched to less expensive homes and what's happened is there's more and more demand for those types of houses, like townhomes and apartments and it's going to put a lot of pressure obviously on the rental market as well. This is happening across the province where more and more demand to rent based on the fact that's its too difficult right now to get into home ownership."
He says in the long term, housing activity will likely go on the up again, with measures like the GST being removed from purpose built rental construction.
"The push is really more on the rental side because it can see that the current climate is saying that this is where we're probably going to build and make the most impact, given the way that prices and affordability is currently."
Passarelli says CMHC is not surprised by the decline because the market is reacting to the affordability issue, but they are optimistic that some of the measures announced by federal, provincial and municipal government's will help spur construction.
-With files from The Canadian Press