Another busy month for home construction in Grande Prairie has pushed its housing starts to within 15 per cent of where they were at this point in 2016. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, after seven months of 2017, work has begun on 121 new homes in the city. That’s down from 140 by the end of July last year.
This July saw number more from triple from 10 to 33. The growth largely comes from single family homes, of which construction started on 29. That’s up from 8 in July 16. Multiple family units doubled from two to four.
CMHC’s chief economist Bob Dugan says they’re seeing housing construction ramp up across the country for the seventh straight month.
“British Columbia and Alberta were the main contributors to the higher trend in housing starts. While BC’s construction coincides with near-record low completed and unsold units in the past few months, Alberta’s inventory of new unsold homes is ramping up, highlighting the need for managing inventories.”
In Grande Prairie, multi-unit buildings are down 75 per cent from where they were last year. Looking at detached homes alone, they’ve increased by 115 per cent.
