April Housing Starts

CMHC has released April statistics for Vancouver Island housing starts. The report can be found here.

Housing starts for Victoria for the year thus far are 15% higher than the January - April period of 2006. April was a big month for Victoria, with 300 new starts, 193 of them being condos in Victoria proper.

"Victoria's under construction volumes have now reached their highest level since September 1976, meaning this generation of builders is experiencing their busiest year ever," said Peggy Prill, Market Analyst at CMHC Victoria.

The Metro Victoria Condo Supply graph is amazing. More than 2000 units under construction! However, the graph shows nearly 0 as inventory. I don't understand that.

Wow, the highest level of home construction in 31 years, more than 2000 condo units under construction. I'm very curious as to what the construction related employment numbers are like for our city. Does anyone have access to this information?

Most of Victoria's large condo developments are due for completion within the next 3 years. As buildings are completed, will new buildings and developments take their place? Are we at a permanently high construction level plateau? If not, what will all the people with construction related jobs do when development slows? I'm guessing that Wendy's and Tim's will have an easier time filling their job vacancies.