Stock photo courtesy of the Regional District of North Okanagan

By Liam Verster

Housing Construction

Greater Vernon housing starts show declines

Dec 18, 2023 | 6:00 AM

Housing construction was down on an annual and monthly basis last month.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported that 24 new housing projects were started in Greater Vernon in November 2023.

That figure was down from October’s 38 starts, and was also lower than the 26 projects launched in November of 2022.

The housing projects started last month included nine single family houses, eight row houses, four semi-detached homes and three apartments.

To date, a total of 334 housing projects have been initiated in Vernon in 2023. Comparatively, as of the end of November 2022, there were 425 housing starts in the area.

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B.C. and Canada saw similar trends in November.

CMHC reported 3,033 housing starts in the province and 17,091 across the country last month.

Comparatively, November of 2022 saw 3,736 housing projects started in B.C. and 21,555 in all of Canada.

Analysts say the declines are a result of the economic conditions and high interest rates.

by Liam Verster

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