Metro Vancouver housing starts rose to 1,783 in September, compared with 1,644 starts in the same month last year, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).
“Apartment starts were concentrated in the cities of Vancouver and Richmond, while Surrey led the way in less dense housing types including single detached and town house starts,” CMHC’s senior market analyst Robyn Adamache said in a statement.
“The City of Vancouver had the second highest number of single-family home starts in the region, most of which was replacement housing.”
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of total housing starts increased in September to 205,900 units, up from 191,900 units in August.
In B.C., September's seasonally adjusted annual urban housing starts rose to 27,400 units from 23,100 units in August.
Things have been good throughout the last quarter, according to CMHC, which also released data for the July-through-September period.
Its numbers show that there were 6,844 housing starts in what it considers urban British Columbia in the third quarter of 2011. That compares with 6,316 urban housing starts in the same quarter in 2010.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom