Construction starts of single-family homes in the Calgary area are expected to climb four per cent by the end of this year compared to 2012, says a federal agency.

Shovels in the ground are expected on 6,200 single-family homes in the Calgary census metropolitan area in 2013 — up four per cent from 5,961 last year, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The census metropolitan area includes surrounding cities and towns, such as Airdrie, Cochrane and Chestermere.

“New home buyers are capitalizing on low mortgage rates and increased equity gains towards their new home purchase,” says senior market analyst Richard Cho in a news release.

New home inventories “remain relatively low, creating opportunities for more units to be started,” he says.

Construction starts of single-family homes is expected to pick up again in 2014, with 6,500 starts predicted for the Calgary area — up five per cent from this year’s expected levels.

While the pace for single-family homes is expected to improve compared to activity in 2012, total construction on homes of all kinds is expected to drop.

There will likely be construction starts for 11,700 homes of all kinds in the Calgary area by the end of 2013, falling nine per cent from 12,841 starts last year.

The biggest segment of the decline is due in multi-family development, where construction is slated to dial down to 5,500 units in 2013, down 20 per cent from 6,880 last year.

Construction starts of homes of all kinds should rebound in 2014, with 13,100 homes estimated for the Calgary area — an 11 per cent upswing compared to this year’s expected totals, says Cho.

“Continued job creation and heightened net migration throughout the forecast period will contribute to the demand for new homes,” he says. Net migration is the inflow of people to the Calgary area minus the outflow.

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