Construction began on 1,701 new homes in Abbotsford and Mission last year, making the 12 months the busiest in the last decade.
Housing starts rose 50 per cent from 2016, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), making it the third year in a row the number of homes being built had risen by at least 40 per cent.
More than half of those starts were in apartment and townhouse strata complexes, with another 334 in rental apartment buildings. The bulk of the remainder – 370 homes – were single-family houses.
The starts came in response to rapidly increasing home prices that have pushed the price of a typical single-family home close to $800,000 and of a typical townhouse to more than $350,000.
The average cost of a brand new single-family house in Abbotsford last was $1.05 million. The median price – the point at which half of homes make more and half make less – was $900,000. That’s up from around $800,000 the previous year.
New homes in Mission remained significantly cheaper. in Mission, where the average was $910,000 and the median $840,000.
Similar figures for apartments and townhouses are not available.
Construction continues on many of the homes started in 2017. As of December, 1,743 units were under construction, closely mirroring the housing start figures. The overwhelming majority of that construction is taking place in Abbotsford, with just 125 homes – primarily single-family houses, being built in Mission.