(file photo/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

51 Housing Starts in July

Vernon’s housing construction increased in July, but still below last year’s totals

Aug 26, 2024 | 10:54 AM

Greater Vernon did see housing construction improve in July, but the annual totals were still well below last year’s figures.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported 51 housing project starts in July of 2024. Those included four single homes, eight semi-detached homes, and 39 row houses.

CMHC’s data showed July’s starts were up significantly from June, when there was only six projects started in Greater Vernon.

However, the starts were still down when compared to July of 2023, which say 56 housing projects started locally.

To date, a total of 105 housing projects had been started in Greater Vernon, less than half the 239 housing starts recorded in the first seven months of 2023.

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CMHC also reported a total of 426 housing starts in Kelowna this past July, marking a significant increase from July 2023’s total of 88 projects.

Last month’s projects included 361 apartments, 36 single detached homes, 27 row houses, and two semi-detached homes. A breakdown of the projects in Kelowna in July of 2023 was not provided.

B.C. as a whole saw a slight dip in housing construction on a month-to-month comparison, while Canada saw an increase in July.

CMHC reported 3,842 new build starts across B.C. in July, down slightly from 3,872 in the same month in 2023.

To date, a total of 26,129 new housing projects have started across B.C. this year. That figure was also down when compared to the 28,086 starts in the same period of 2023.

Nationally, CMHC reported 22,572 new housing starts in July, up from the 20,531 starts recorded in July of 2023.

To date there have been 132,823 new housing projects started across Canada in 2024. That was up from the same period in 2023 when there were 123,684 new starts recorded across the nation.