Canadian housing starts increased in June

OTTAWA, ON, July 9, 2020 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 199,655 units in June 2020, up from 197,063 units in May 2020, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

Bob Dugan, Chief Economist, CMHC (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

Housing Starts in Canada - All Areas (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

"The national trend in housing starts increased in June," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "This reflects higher multi-family starts in Toronto and Montreal following declines in these centres in recent months from COVID-19 measures. Housing starts continued to decline in most other centres in June, including Vancouver. We expect national starts to trend lower in the near term as a result of the negative impact of COVID-19 on economic and housing indicators."

CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of Canada's housing market. In some situations, analyzing only SAAR data can be misleading, as they are largely driven by the multi-unit segment of the market which can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 211,681 units in June, an increase of 8.3% from 195,453 units in May. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 8.7% in June to 196,675 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 13.0% to 154,602 units in June while single-detached urban starts decreased by 4.5% to 42,073 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15,006 units.

Preliminary Housing Starts data are also available in English and French through our website and through CMHC's Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets.

Like many other government organizations, businesses and individuals, we are closely following developments around COVID-19. The monthly release of our Preliminary Housing Starts data will continue as planned. CMHC will report any impact on our ability to collect housing data.

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers objective housing research and information to Canadian governments, consumers and the housing industry.

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Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		June 2019	June 2020	%	June 2019	June 2020	%	June 2019	June 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		63	36	-43	26	12	-54	89	48	-46
P.E.I.		35	28	-20	93	134	44	128	162	27
N.S.		172	140	-19	488	93	-81	660	233	-65
N.B.		92	84	-9	370	160	-57	462	244	-47
Atlantic		362	288	-20	977	399	-59	1,339	687	-49
Qc		774	797	3	4,500	5,086	13	5,274	5,883	12
Ont.		2,058	1,945	-5	4,063	5,097	25	6,121	7,042	15
Man.		194	156	-20	579	445	-23	773	601	-22
Sask.		117	83	-29	124	126	2	241	209	-13
Alta.		949	669	-30	1,741	629	-64	2,690	1,298	-52
Prairies		1,260	908	-28	2,444	1,200	-51	3,704	2,108	-43
B.C.		778	639	-18	4,332	2,476	-43	5,110	3,115	-39
Canada (10,000+)		5,232	4,577	-13	16,316	14,258	-13	21,548	18,835	-13
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		38	27	-29	32	25	-22	70	52	-26
Barrie		26	50	92	0	206	##	26	256	##
Belleville		53	28	-47	28	10	-64	81	38	-53
Brantford		4	29	##	5	12	140	9	41	356
Calgary		310	218	-30	801	207	-74	1,111	425	-62
Edmonton		467	347	-26	838	289	-66	1,305	636	-51
Greater Sudbury		13	17	31	12	4	-67	25	21	-16
Guelph		51	16	-69	13	12	-8	64	28	-56
Halifax		108	95	-12	460	57	-88	568	152	-73
Hamilton		58	33	-43	97	198	104	155	231	49
Kelowna		65	19	-71	183	219	20	248	238	-4
Kingston		53	28	-47	0	48	##	53	76	43
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		84	64	-24	243	556	129	327	620	90
Lethbridge		32	17	-47	30	70	133	62	87	40
London		131	134	2	311	101	-68	442	235	-47
Moncton		26	30	15	209	94	-55	235	124	-47
Montréal		273	266	-3	3,159	3,094	-2	3,432	3,360	-2
Oshawa		192	56	-71	78	101	29	270	157	-42
Ottawa-Gatineau		297	297	-	648	665	3	945	962	2
Gatineau		34	21	-38	81	276	241	115	297	158
Ottawa		263	276	5	567	389	-31	830	665	-20
Peterborough		17	15	-12	7	0	-100	24	15	-38
Québec		103	102	-1	901	878	-3	1,004	980	-2
Regina		26	12	-54	44	13	-70	70	25	-64
Saguenay		29	32	10	30	23	-23	59	55	-7
St. Catharines-Niagara		122	155	27	58	249	329	180	404	124
Saint John		20	16	-20	72	29	-60	92	45	-51
St. John's		49	28	-43	25	9	-64	74	37	-50
Saskatoon		81	63	-22	76	112	47	157	175	11
Sherbrooke		79	70	-11	36	312	##	115	382	232
Thunder Bay		21	17	-19	4	22	450	25	39	56
Toronto		555	652	17	2,460	2,818	15	3,015	3,470	15
Trois-Rivières		39	27	-31	6	68	##	45	95	111
Vancouver		331	322	-3	3,158	1,683	-47	3,489	2,005	-43
Victoria		70	76	9	149	134	-10	219	210	-4
Windsor		74	80	8	18	101	461	92	181	97
Winnipeg		166	127	-23	555	419	-25	721	546	-24
Total		4,063	3,565	-12	14,746	12,838	-13	18,809	16,403	-13
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.   Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC   ## not calculable / extreme value

Preliminary Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		May 2020	June 2020	%	May 2020	June 2020	%	May 2020	June 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		172	250	45	0	116	##	172	366	113
P.E.I.		161	214	33	864	1,608	86	1,025	1,822	78
N.S.		1,399	1,174	-16	1,847	1,144	-38	3,246	2,318	-29
N.B.		648	567	-13	2,552	1,718	-33	3,200	2,285	-29
Qc		8,792	6,570	-25	48,801	47,433	-3	57,593	54,003	-6
Ont.		17,044	17,448	2	38,518	58,893	53	55,562	76,341	37
Man.		1,507	1,671	11	2,172	5,340	146	3,679	7,011	91
Sask.		900	783	-13	936	1,512	62	1,836	2,295	25
Alta.		7,197	7,003	-3	11,263	7,162	-36	18,460	14,165	-23
B.C.		6,215	6,393	3	29,883	29,676	-1	36,098	36,069	0
Canada (10,000+)		44,035	42,073	-4	136,836	154,602	13	180,871	196,675	9
Canada (All Areas)		53,737	51,635	-4	141,716	160,045	13	195,453	211,681	8
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		330	290	-12	168	300	79	498	590	18
Barrie		886	432	-51	120	2,472	##	1,006	2,904	189
Belleville		150	267	78	144	120	-17	294	387	32
Brantford		349	391	12	384	144	-63	733	535	-27
Calgary		2,825	2,361	-16	5,508	2,484	-55	8,333	4,845	-42
Edmonton		2,856	3,433	20	4,740	3,468	-27	7,596	6,901	-9
Greater Sudbury		24	131	446	24	48	100	48	179	273
Guelph		254	97	-62	0	144	##	254	241	-5
Halifax		1,051	748	-29	1,644	684	-58	2,695	1,432	-47
Hamilton		526	335	-36	684	2,376	247	1,210	2,711	124
Kelowna		422	230	-45	1,356	2,628	94	1,778	2,858	61
Kingston		123	204	66	2,400	576	-76	2,523	780	-69
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		637	668	5	948	6,672	##	1,585	7,340	363
Lethbridge		137	178	30	72	840	##	209	1,018	387
London		477	1,370	187	1,128	1,212	7	1,605	2,582	61
Moncton		203	200	-1	1,836	1,128	-39	2,039	1,328	-35
Montréal		3,371	2,287	-32	29,504	37,014	25	32,875	39,301	20
Oshawa		789	415	-47	1,140	1,212	6	1,929	1,627	-16
Ottawa-Gatineau		3,595	2,872	-20	8,232	7,980	-3	11,827	10,852	-8
Gatineau		537	331	-38	3,300	3,312	0	3,837	3,643	-5
Ottawa		3,058	2,541	-17	4,932	4,668	-5	7,990	7,209	-10
Peterborough		196	119	-39	156	0	-100	352	119	-66
Québec		1,440	795	-45	10,104	10,536	4	11,544	11,331	-2
Regina		175	120	-31	372	156	-58	547	276	-50
Saguenay		184	204	11	480	276	-43	664	480	-28
St. Catharines-Niagara		918	1,458	59	348	2,988	##	1,266	4,446	251
Saint John		163	118	-28	24	348	##	187	466	149
St. John's		130	193	48	0	108	##	130	301	132
Saskatoon		651	553	-15	552	1,344	143	1,203	1,897	58
Sherbrooke		447	370	-17	1,368	3,744	174	1,815	4,114	127
Thunder Bay		43	91	112	288	264	-8	331	355	7
Toronto		5,424	5,887	9	24,336	33,816	39	29,760	39,703	33
Trois-Rivières		225	174	-23	1,452	816	-44	1,677	990	-41
Vancouver		2,681	3,381	26	22,236	20,196	-9	24,917	23,577	-5
Victoria		600	734	22	2,460	1,608	-35	3,060	2,342	-23
Windsor		555	648	17	288	1,212	321	843	1,860	121
Winnipeg		1,156	1,338	16	1,656	5,028	204	2,812	6,366	126
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions. Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC   ## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

on this release: Angelina Ritacco, Media Relations, CMHC, 416-218-3320, [email protected]

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