Regina home builders started work on 88 housing units in April, down 25 per cent from 117 in April 2015, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Declines were seen in single-detached homes, which were down 24 per cent to 50 in April, and multiple-unit starts, which were down 26 per cent to 38 units last month, compared with the same period last year.

For the year to date, housing starts were down about 15 per cent, with 323 total starts to the end of April, compared with 381 during the first four months of 2015, CMHC said.

However, housing starts in the Regina area were trending stable at 1,286 units in April, compared with 1,285 in March. The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly, seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of total housing starts.

“The trend in total housing starts remained stable in April after an increasing trend in single-detached construction was countered by a declining trend in multi-unit production,” said Goodson Mwale, CMHC’s senior market analyst for Saskatchewan.

“The pace of Regina’s housing starts so far in 2016 continues to be constrained by weaker economic conditions and elevated inventory of complete and unsold units,” Mwale added in a press release.

Stu Niebergall, president and CEO of the Regina & Region Home Builder’s Association (RRHBA), noted that single-detached homes starts are up 24 units or 16.3 per cent for the first fourth months of the year, making up 53 per cent of the housing market.

“For the first time since 2011, singles represent more than half the new housing market,” Niebergall said.

CMHC’s preliminary housing start projection of 1,286 Regina housing starts in 2016 is closely aligned with the 1,250 housing starts the RRHBA has forecasted, he added.

In contrast to Regina, Saskatoon’s housing starts in April were more than double last year’s pace at 238, versus 116 during the same period last year.

The increase in housing starts in April was led entirely by the multiples sector where 177 units were started, compared to 19 in the same month one year prior, the report said

Saskatoon builders started work on 604 new units in the first four months of 2016, a 13 per cent decrease from the 695 housing starts recorded in the same period last year, the report said.

“The big take-away is that we’re seeing sort of a steady pace in terms of housing starts … (But) builders still have to deal with the economic environment, but also they have to deal with the fact that there’s still quite a lot of inventory out there,” Mwale said

Nationally, the pace of housing starts slowed in April to the lowest level in three months, CMHC said.

Most regions of the country saw increases in urban areas on a seasonally adjusted basis but there were declines in Ontario and Quebec. the seasonally adjusted rate for housing starts last month was 191,512 units — down from 202,375 units in March and 212,594 units in February

Ontario’s seasonally adjusted rate for urban starts fell to 62,672 starts in April, down from 85,518 in March while Quebec’s urban starts fell to 27,423 from 29,696.

With files from The Canadian Press and Saskatoon StarPhoenix

bjohnstone@postmedia.com