Kelowna lags far behind Canada and B.C. in housing starts this year

Housing starts in Canada are down 17% so far this year and B.C. starts are down 34%.

The latest data from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows Kelowna, the only B.C. Interior city listed, is down even more.

In total housing starts, Kelowna is down 40% with 351 starts compared to 589 in the first three months of 2020.

Single-family starts in Kelowna are down 42% to 128 while all other types of housing are down 39% to 223.

READ MORE: Housing sales dropped in Kamloops, Okanagan in March but prices shot up

Just for the month of March, Canada is down 26% in total starts from March 2021 and B.C. is down 57%.

Kelowna did better, comparatively, with a 22% drop in starts for all types of housing to 201 from 257 in March, according to the report.

The data is based on housing starts in Canadian cities with more than 10,000 residents but only breaks out the larger urban areas, called Census Metropolitan Areas. While Kamloops reached that classification in the last census, it is not yet included in the statistics.

In a separate report, the Canadian Real Estate Board found that housing sales were down 16.3% in March versus the record setting month of March 2021. Still, March 2022 is the second highest March on record.

READ MORE: CREA reports home sales down in March, average price up 11.2 per cent from year ago

Sales were down 5.4% from February. Housing sales usually ramp up in the spring.

The number of newly listed properties was also down 5.5% from February at a time when new listings have been very low.

Prices for homes rose 11.2% to $796,000 for the country as a whole. When the high-priced Greater Vancouver and Toronto markets are excluded, that drops the average price by $163,000.

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