Area home builders well ahead of last year

With less than a month to go, local home builders are well ahead of last year’s production.

By the end of November, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reports, home contractors in Lethbridge and area had reached 702 housing starts — up from 601 over the same period in 2016.

While 442 of those units were single-family homes, builders had also started work — or completed — 260 multiple-family units since the start of the year.

CMHC reports show 583 of those homes were inside city limits, with the balance in other communities — Coaldale, Coalhurst, Picture Butte, Nobleford — within Lethbridge County.

While Calgary and Edmonton also showed gains over 2016, the report shows other mid-sized cities across Alberta not doing as well. Red Deer and area posted 298 starts over the first 11 months, down from 345 a year earlier.

Medicine Hat dropped to 125 starts vs. 154 by the end of November 2016. And Grande Prairie, which had 227 starts over that period in 2016, was down to 190.

The contractors’ brightest spot has been Fort McMurray, still building homes to replace those lost to a wildfire more than a year ago. More than 1,580 starts had been reported by the end of November, compared to 83 in the same time frame last year.

Construction in Calgary is closer to boom-time levels, with 10,851 starts (6,777 of them involving condos or other multifamily units) in the metro area over the first 11 months, vs. 8,270 a year ago.

Edmonton is close behind, with 10,781 starts (6,102 of them multifamily) by the end of November, up from 9,324 in the capital region a year earlier.