Saskatoon housing starts up from last year, inventory rising

CMHC has just released their monthly housing start report.  It can be found here.
Single starts for Saskatoon were 119 this March compared to 75 last March.  Other starts were 69 this March compared to 2 last March. Total starts in 2011 up until the end of March are at 648, last year it was 365.

Housing starts in the last year have been quite strong and with the loads of housing units coming down the pipeline, this reaffirms my belief that sales will need to be quite a bit stronger this year compared to last year to keep inventory at a balanced level.  Sales in Jan and Feb were stronger this year compared to last year while this March was weaker. We know that with mortgage rules, demand wains.   inventory is rising, not at an alarming rate...yet.  We do know that the sales to listings % rate in 2010 was one of the weakest in the past few years with most months under 50%.  Will many of the unsuccessful sellers in 2010 come back in 2011? Many variables on why supply could test record highs this year.  Throw in some higher interest rates, and the momentum of a possible first time buyers strike across the country, the real estate market will get interesting for some, scary for others.