Building Permits in Calgary Were Climbing While Housing Starts Were Dropping

According to new reports from Statistics Canada, the total value of Calgary building permits went up in October. The value of permits increased to $606.5 million, which was a rise of 1.8% when compared to the value reported in September of this year.

Permits for the residential sector went up by 10.7% in October to $465.6 million. The value for non-residential building permits went down that same month to $140.8 million. On a yearly basis, however, the value of permits decreased by 0.7%.

The total permit values in Alberta for the month of October went up by 5.8% to $1.6 billion on a month over month basis. There was a rise of 6.4% in the residential sector and a rise of 4.6% in the value of non-residential permits. On a national level, the total value for permits across Canada went up to $7.5 billion in October, which was a rise of 0.7% when compared to the numbers released in September.

On the other hand, housing starts declined during the month of November. Last month, the starts went down to 1,078 compared to the 1,693 starts that were reported in November 2013. The biggest drop, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, took place in the construction of multi-family units. This decline was more or less expected following one of the strongest years ever recorded.

Some analysts are saying that the decline in housing starts is due to the changing oil prices. Although oil plays an important part in Calgary's economy, this city has become self-sustaining in other ways and declining oil prices won't make or break this city.