CMHC "Housing Now" Report for January

I received CMHC's February "Housing Now" report today. Unfortunately, the issue is a month late - it is covering January. Most the items in the reports have already been discussed around here and the local water cooler. The report can be viewed here.

"... demand for new homes remains strong, evidenced by low inventories of newly completed home together with robust new home sales."

Their numbers do show a 91.3 percent increase between January 2006 and January 2007 in completed and not absorbed SFHs. CMHC says this is a low number, and can be

"... attributed to a rise in proportion of speculative building versus custom-designed houses in Langford, Sooke, Saanich and Colwood Markets. Overall, the market is balanced as supply is keeping pace with demand."

Speculative building, I like that.

Perhaps, supply is outpacing demand. Looking at all forms of housing (SFH, townhomes, condos), there is a 30.7 percent increase this year (January) in homes under construction, a 54.7 percent increase in completed and not absorbed, and a 13.6 decrease in homes absorbed. This is nothing new - inventory is increasing.

The report provides a substantial amount of info. Too bad we have to wait a month to see the results for February. We can be thankful though that VREB is very on the ball and releases their numbers on the first or second of the new month. How interesting will February's stats be?