Canadian housing starts trended lower in July

OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 17, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 286,620 units in July 2021, down from 293,085 units in June 2021, 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.

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

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

"The six-month trend in housing starts declined from June to July, reflecting the recent moderation in total starts from the highs recorded earlier this year," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "In July, higher single-detached SAAR starts failed to offset a decrease in multi-family SAAR starts in Canada's urban areas, leading to a decline in overall SAAR starts for the month. However, the level of activity remains elevated by historical standards, both on a trend and monthly SAAR basis. Among the markets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, only Toronto registered growth in total SAAR starts in July, driven once again by strong growth in the multi-family segment."

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 the multi-unit segment largely drives the market and can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 272,176 units in July, a decrease of 3.2% from 281,200 units in June. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 0.65% in July to 249,001 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 3.1% to 184,759 units in July while single-detached urban starts increased by 7.1% to 64,242 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 23,175 units.

Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data  are accessible in English and French on our website and the CMHC Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets. Housing starts data is available on the eleventh business day each month. We will release the August 2021 data on September 16 at 8:15 AM ET.

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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Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		July 2020	July 2021	%	July 2020	July 2021	%	July 020	July 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		56	45	-20	12	22	83	68	67	-1
P.E.I.		27	59	119	14	75	436	41	134	227
N.S.		153	144	-6	497	297	-40	650	441	-32
N.B.		86	148	72	525	282	-46	611	430	-30
Atlantic		322	396	23	1,048	676	-35	1,370	1,072	-22
Qc		759	898	18	4,012	4,213	5	4,771	5,111	7
Ont.		2,220	2,684	21	5,356	5,481	2	7,576	8,165	8
Man.		178	281	58	382	262	-31	560	543	-3
Sask.		127	124	-2	558	89	-84	685	213	-69
Alta.		711	1,316	85	1,233	1,407	14	1,944	2,723	40
Prairies		1,016	1,721	69	2,173	1,758	-19	3,189	3,479	9
B.C.		660	735	11	2,649	3,293	24	3,309	4,028	22
Canada (10,000+)		4,977	6,434	29	15,238	15,421	1	20,215	21,855	8
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		23	20	-13	16	19	19	39	39	-
Barrie		32	91	184	16	235	##	48	326	##
Belleville		56	42	-25	8	4	-50	64	46	-28
Brantford		54	9	-83	43	0	-100	97	9	-91
Calgary		241	504	109	496	900	81	737	1,404	91
Edmonton		333	583	75	607	434	-29	940	1,017	8
Greater Sudbury		17	28	65	12	22	83	29	50	72
Guelph		19	18	-5	0	157	##	19	175	##
Halifax		101	76	-25	473	224	-53	574	300	-48
Hamilton		34	68	100	547	177	-68	581	245	-58
Kelowna		34	80	135	256	375	46	290	455	57
Kingston		26	39	50	82	16	-80	108	55	-49
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		93	61	-34	79	427	441	172	488	184
Lethbridge		23	53	130	78	23	-71	101	76	-25
London		222	238	7	109	397	264	331	635	92
Moncton		26	48	85	370	105	-72	396	153	-61
Montréal		259	271	5	2,776	2,339	-16	3,035	2,610	-14
Oshawa		56	129	130	86	160	86	142	289	104
Ottawa-Gatineau		386	408	6	592	387	-35	978	795	-19
Gatineau		63	110	75	175	38	-78	238	148	-38
Ottawa		323	298	-8	417	349	-16	740	647	-13
Peterborough		26	60	131	2	0	-100	28	60	114
Québec		96	103	7	476	1,303	174	572	1,406	146
Regina		22	31	41	56	24	-57	78	55	-29
Saguenay		38	20	-47	46	16	-65	84	36	-57
St. Catharines-Niagara		122	132	8	155	72	-54	277	204	-26
Saint John		19	30	58	78	88	13	97	118	22
St. John's		44	35	-20	10	20	100	54	55	2
Saskatoon		95	82	-14	498	49	-90	593	131	-78
Sherbrooke		39	46	18	62	74	19	101	120	19
Thunder Bay		13	19	46	6	60	##	19	79	316
Toronto		652	861	32	3,469	3,194	-8	4,121	4,055	-2
Trois-Rivières		21	22	5	56	88	57	77	110	43
Vancouver		315	257	-18	1,764	1,818	3	2,079	2,075	0
Victoria		80	80	-	283	537	90	363	617	70
Windsor		41	57	39	45	36	-20	86	93	8
Winnipeg		141	233	65	341	211	-38	482	444	-8
Total		3,799	4,834	27	13,993	13,991	0	17,792	18,825	6
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC   ## not calculable / extreme value
Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
		Single-Detached			All Others			Total
		June 2021	July 2021	%	June 2021	July 2021	%	June 2021	July 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		548	428	-22	147	256	74	695	684	-2
P.E.I.		289	494	71	828	900	9	1,117	1,394	25
N.S.		1,099	1,381	26	822	3,551	332	1,921	4,932	157
N.B.		1,078	1,053	-2	2,714	3,279	21	3,792	4,332	14
Qc		9,032	8,592	-5	48,768	51,662	6	57,800	60,254	4
Ont.		21,934	26,492	21	59,913	64,513	8	81,847	91,005	11
Man.		2,971	2,900	-2	6,348	3,144	-50	9,319	6,044	-35
Sask.		1,668	1,265	-24	1,776	1,068	-40	3,444	2,333	-32
Alta.		13,579	13,949	3	15,153	16,868	11	28,732	30,817	7
B.C.		7,780	7,688	-1	54,180	39,518	-27	61,960	47,206	-24
Canada (10,000+)		59,978	64,242	7	190,649	184,759	-3	250,627	249,001	-1
Canada (All Areas)		80,462	81,498	1	200,740	190,677	-5	281,200	272,176	-3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		323	271	-16	1,368	228	-83	1,691	499	-70
Barrie		572	583	2	504	2,820	460	1,076	3,403	216
Belleville		466	389	-17	0	48	##	466	437	-6
Brantford		276	113	-59	72	0	-100	348	113	-68
Calgary		6,069	6,143	1	7,620	10,800	42	13,689	16,943	24
Edmonton		5,522	6,078	10	6,840	5,208	-24	12,362	11,286	-9
Greater Sudbury		141	170	21	276	264	-4	417	434	4
Guelph		172	200	16	1,956	1,884	-4	2,128	2,084	-2
Halifax		35	801	##	132	2,688	##	167	3,489	##
Hamilton		1,104	962	-13	3,876	2,124	-45	4,980	3,086	-38
Kelowna		861	918	7	2,412	4,500	87	3,273	5,418	66
Kingston		288	386	34	276	192	-30	564	578	2
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		820	903	10	2,304	5,124	122	3,124	6,027	93
Lethbridge		448	503	12	60	276	360	508	779	53
London		1,971	1,952	-1	8,544	4,764	-44	10,515	6,716	-36
Moncton		296	326	10	1,680	1,260	-25	1,976	1,586	-20
Montréal		2,751	2,737	-1	36,273	27,893	-23	39,024	30,630	-22
Oshawa		1,331	1,431	8	3,420	1,920	-44	4,751	3,351	-29
Ottawa-Gatineau		5,101	3,758	-26	3,816	4,644	22	8,917	8,402	-6
Gatineau		2,013	984	-51	264	456	73	2,277	1,440	-37
Ottawa		3,088	2,774	-10	3,552	4,188	18	6,640	6,962	5
Peterborough		241	445	85	0	0	-	241	445	85
Québec		983	1,035	5	15,996	15,636	-2	16,979	16,671	-2
Regina		472	399	-15	456	288	-37	928	687	-26
Saguenay		395	200	-49	240	192	-20	635	392	-38
St. Catharines-Niagara		624	1,291	107	1,056	864	-18	1,680	2,155	28
Saint John		288	246	-15	72	1,056	##	360	1,302	262
St. John's		387	379	-2	144	240	67	531	619	17
Saskatoon		926	786	-15	1,236	588	-52	2,162	1,374	-36
Sherbrooke		368	623	69	2,256	888	-61	2,624	1,511	-42
Thunder Bay		82	138	68	0	720	##	82	858	##
Toronto		5,522	8,028	45	30,480	38,328	26	36,002	46,356	29
Trois-Rivières		281	242	-14	996	1,056	6	1,277	1,298	2
Vancouver		2,801	2,567	-8	42,144	21,816	-48	44,945	24,383	-46
Victoria		875	811	-7	3,264	6,444	97	4,139	7,255	75
Windsor		629	632	0	1,092	432	-60	1,721	1,064	-38
Winnipeg		2,403	2,396	0	5,640	2,532	-55	8,043	4,928	-39
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Audrey-Anne Coulombe, Media Relations, CMHC, 613-748-2573, [email protected]

Related Links

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