The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has come out with their last quarterly report on housing starts in Alberta forĀ 2016, and while the MD of Bonnyville is reporting a modest decline, Cold Lake’s have seen by far the most significant drop in the province.
The CMHC reports that the MD of Bonnyville saw 51 new housing projects started in the area in 2016, compared to 63 the year before. A roughly 19 percent decrease. Ā This is largely in line with other areas in the survey, which although a few saw increases, mostly faced decreases as well.
Cold Lake however, Ā had by the most severe dip of any area reported on. Housing starts were less than a quarter of what they were in 2015, with 2016 seeing just 25 new projects started compared to 106. This news would seem to largely be in agreement with a report from October saying that the city had an apartment vacancy rate over 25 percent.