The Commerce Department said housing starts fell 4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 557,000 units. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 580,000 units. November’s housing starts were revised upwards to 580,000 units from the previously reported 574,000 units. The drop in housing starts was likely the result of unusually cold weather last month.

Groundbreaking activity dropped a record 38.8% to an all-time low of 553,000 units for the whole of 2009.
Starts for single-family homes fell 6.9% last month to an annual rate of 456,000 units after rising 4.0% in November. Groundbreaking for the volatile multifamily segment rose 12.2% to a 101,000 unit annual pace, after surging 69.8% in November.

Housing is on the mend after a three-year slump and new home construction contributed to economic growth in the third quarter of 2009 for the first time since 2005.

However data such as pending home sales and homebuilder sentiment have hinted at potential weakness in a sector whose collapse triggered the most brutal U.S. recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, rose 10.9% to 653,000 units last month, the highest since October 2008. That compared to analysts’ forecasts for 590,000 units. For the whole of 2009, permits dropped 36.9%, the department said.

The inventory of total houses under construction dropped 3.8% to a record low of 511,000 units last month, while the total number of permits authorized but not yet started rose 8.4% to 95,800 units.

As confidence in the economic recovery grows, average prices are likely to increase, the real estate agency says.

Royal LePage executive Phil Soper says the real estate market enters 2010 with “considerable momentum from an unusually strong finish to the previous year.”

The stimulus effect of low borrowing costs has contributed to a sharp rise in demand that has driven activity to new highs, he says.

The data backs that up. New data released Thursday from Canada’s largest real estate market, Toronto, showed existing home sales were up a massive 115 per cent, year over year, in December.

Those gains came against a particularly poor showing in December 2008, but the 5,541 sales reported by the Toronto Real Estate Board are the strongest December on record back to 1980, BMO economist Robert Kavcic said in a note to clients on Thursday.

Listings in the city were down 47 per cent, year on year, causing average prices to be pushed up 14 per cent. “Too much (cheap) money chasing too few goods,” Kavcic said.

The average home price in 2009 climbed four per cent to $395,460, the TREB said.

That follows the national trend, according to Royal LePage. House prices appreciated in late 2009, with fourth quarter price averages higher than fourth quarter 2008

McMurtry is Chair of the Steering Committee of the Ontario Civil Legal Needs Project, a comprehensive study of unmet legal needs in Ontario. The project is the result of a partnership between the Law Society of Upper Canada, Legal Aid Ontario, and Pro Bono Law Ontario. Additional support for the initiative is provided by the Law Foundation of Ontario.

The goal is to improve access to justice by identifying innovative and cost-effective ways for legal service providers to better serve the public’s civil legal needs – those not included in criminal law. “Today, more people are appearing in courtrooms throughout the province without the support of a lawyer or licensed paralegal”, says McMurtry. “The costs of legal services are rising, and it is taking longer to resolve legal problems. We, as a legal community, want to address these issues.”

Law Society Treasurer W. A. Derry Millar explains that the Law Society shares with its partners an obligation to improve access to justice. “As we looked at barriers to justice, it became clear that we needed to speak directly with Ontarians. A better understanding of civil legal needs and all related factors will lead us to more effective solutions,” he says.

The project, notes Sandy Hutchens, comes in the wake of numerous civil justice initiatives introduced by the Ontario government. “The Ontario Civil Legal Needs Project is a proactive response to the Honourable Coulter Osborne’s recommendation for a needs assessment in the Civil Justice Reform Project and it complements the Attorney General’s efforts to make civil justice more accessible and affordable,” says Lynn Burns, Executive Director of Pro Bono Law Ontario.

“Legal organizations, individual lawyers and paralegals are committed to improving access to justice”, says Legal Aid Ontario Chair John McCamus. “The Ontario Civil Legal Needs project will help us achieve that goal by identifying ways for the legal and social service communities to work more effectively with existing resources.”

The project has three main components:

1. An extensive telephone survey of the public
2. A series of comprehensive focus groups with front-line legal and social service providers
3. An environmental scan of existing services that promote access to justice.

The final report and recommendations will analyze the findings and establish a roadmap to help stakeholders in the legal services delivery system establish priorities, allot existing resources effectively and identify opportunities for enhanced collaboration and improvement.

385 units in 2008. The decline will moderate in 2010 as a result of some rejuvenation in demand for new single-detached homes and will mitigate a further decline in apartment starts.
Similar to the resale market, many potential buyers of new homes have adopted a wait-and see attitude towards homeownership. However, another major reason for the decline in starts is the satiation of pent-up Economic Forecasts demand built up in the 1990s.
Consequently, demand going forward will be more in line with long term demographic requirements. According CMHC’s long term housing demand projections, these requirements are approximately 1800 new homes annually.
Another reason for lower starts is the strong competition from the resale market. In general, buyers tend to begin their search for suit- able homes in the resale market. With more listings in the resale market, homebuyers are more likely to find a resale home that meets their needs and is also more afford- able and readily available, resulting in less demand for new homes.
The decline in detached home demand will also contribute to the overall drop in new home construction in 2009. Demand for single- detached homes usually comes from move-up buyers. However, a higher number of listings in the resale market in 2009 will make it harder for them to sell their existing homes, resulting in the drop in detached home starts in 2009. However, as the resale market recovers in 2010, move-up activities will fuel more single-detached home starts. The price differential between new and resale detached homes has also had a negative impact on starts. While a resale single-detached home was sold for approximately $240,000 in 2008, the average price for a new detached home is around $340,000, causing some buyers to skip the sales office.
An increase in inventory also impacts builders and developers’ ability to bring more projects online. The number of unsold units has been at a high level since 2004. These units will have to be sold before developers can bring more projects on line. With the economy expected to recover in 2010, the existing inventory of new homes will likely start to edge down. Reviewed by Sandy Hutchens.