Ottawa housing starts down 57% in Februrary
New construction in Ottawa fell 57% in February due to the economic downturn. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. stated that work was started on 137 units this year compared with 317 units in February 2008.
There were no construction starts in apartment units compared to 56 starts in February 2008. On single family houses, construction fell by 59 per cent and on row-housing units by 36 per cent.
In all of Canada, housing starts fell by 12 per cent last month.