Condo Sales In Canada Up By 30 Percent In February

March 10, 2008 9:58 a.m. EST

Ontario, Canada (AHN) - While the U.S. home property market continues to suffer a downturn, the Canadian housing industry is on an uptick, marked by a 15 percent hike in new homes in February. Fueling the housing boom was the construction of multiple-family units, including condominium towers.

Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said the seasonally adjusted yearly rate of housing starts in February jumped to 256,900 homes, up from 222,700 units in January. CMC chief economist Bob Dugan pointed out condominium sales had been strong for the past two years, rising by 30 percent in urban areas on February.

But Dugan said new home constructions will decline in the coming months.

Aside from the positive news in the housing sector, Statistics Canada reported last week a 5.8 percent 33-year low unemployment rate for Canada.

CIBC senior economist Avery Shenfeld said the positive numbers for Canada indicated it will likely not fall into recession. Shenfeld explained, "Since Canada never had much of a subprime market, there was nothing to blow up (in Canada) in the first place... The best defense against recession in Canada is the consumer sector and the job growth and some very nice wage gains to go along with it, there's still a lot of spending power in the hands of Canadians."