Canadian Housing Starts Continued to Trend Higher in June

OTTAWA, ON, July 16, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 293,567 units in June 2021, up from 284,837 units in May 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 remained elevated in June, despite recent moderation in single-detached starts from the highs recorded in the first quarter of 2021," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "In June, lower single-detached SAAR starts offset a slight increase 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. The markets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal registered particularly strong growth in total SAAR starts in June, driven by 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 282,070 units in June, a decrease of 1.5% from 286,296 units in May. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 1.8% in June to 251,190 units. Multiple urban starts increased by a slight 0.6% to 191,085 units in June while single-detached urban starts decreased by 8.5% to 60,105 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 30,880 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 July 2021 data on August 17 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
		June 2020	June 2021	%	June 2020	June 2021	%	June 2020	June 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		36	67	86	12	14	17	48	81	69
P.E.I.		28	33	18	134	69	-49	162	102	-37
N.S.		140	116	-17	85	65	-24	225	181	-20
N.B.		84	144	71	160	236	48	244	380	56
Atlantic		288	360	25	391	384	-2	679	744	10
Qc		797	1,076	35	5,086	5,354	5	5,883	6,430	9
Ont.		1,945	2,318	19	5,097	5,165	1	7,042	7,483	6
Man.		156	273	75	445	529	19	601	802	33
Sask.		83	152	83	126	148	17	209	300	44
Alta.		669	1,239	85	629	1,289	105	1,298	2,528	95
Prairies		908	1,664	83	1,200	1,966	64	2,108	3,630	72
B.C.		639	766	20	2,476	4,520	83	3,115	5,286	70
Canada (10,000+)		4,577	6,184	35	14,250	17,389	22	18,827	23,573	25
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		27	31	15	25	114	356	52	145	179
Barrie		50	55	10	206	42	-80	256	97	-62
Belleville		28	50	79	10	0	-100	38	50	32
Brantford		29	11	-62	12	6	-50	41	17	-59
Calgary		218	538	147	207	635	207	425	1,173	176
Edmonton		347	485	40	289	570	97	636	1,055	66
Greater Sudbury		17	17	-	4	23	475	21	40	90
Guelph		16	24	50	12	163	##	28	187	##
Halifax		95	4	-96	57	11	-81	152	15	-90
Hamilton		33	85	158	198	323	63	231	408	77
Kelowna		19	96	405	219	201	-8	238	297	25
Kingston		28	35	25	48	23	-52	76	58	-24
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		64	69	8	556	192	-65	620	261	-58
Lethbridge		17	37	118	70	5	-93	87	42	-52
London		134	161	20	101	712	##	235	873	271
Moncton		30	40	33	94	140	49	124	180	45
Montréal		266	301	13	3,094	3,023	-2	3,360	3,324	-1
Oshawa		56	147	163	101	285	182	157	432	175
Ottawa-Gatineau		297	443	49	665	318	-52	962	761	-21
Gatineau		21	129	##	276	22	-92	297	151	-49
Ottawa		276	314	14	389	296	-24	665	610	-8
Peterborough		15	24	60	0	0	-	15	24	60
Québec		102	121	19	878	1,333	52	980	1,454	48
Regina		12	49	308	13	38	192	25	87	248
Saguenay		32	66	106	23	20	-13	55	86	56
St. Catharines-Niagara		155	70	-55	249	88	-65	404	158	-61
Saint John		16	36	125	29	6	-79	45	42	-7
St. John's		28	54	93	9	12	33	37	66	78
Saskatoon		63	93	48	112	103	-8	175	196	12
Sherbrooke		70	61	-13	312	188	-40	382	249	-35
Thunder Bay		17	15	-12	22	0	-100	39	15	-62
Toronto		652	590	-10	2,818	2,540	-10	3,470	3,130	-10
Trois-Rivières		27	45	67	68	83	22	95	128	35
Vancouver		322	279	-13	1,683	3,512	109	2,005	3,791	89
Victoria		76	86	13	134	272	103	210	358	70
Windsor		80	80	-	101	91	-10	181	171	-6
Winnipeg		127	225	77	419	470	12	546	695	27
Total		3,565	4,523	27	12,838	15,542	21	16,403	20,065	22
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
		May 2021	June 2021	%	May 2021	June 2021	%	May 2021	June 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		619	550	-11	188	153	-19	807	703	-13
P.E.I.		536	288	-46	552	828	50	1,088	1,116	3
N.S.		1,254	1,071	-15	7,113	824	-88	8,367	1,895	-77
N.B.		1,391	1,041	-25	4,987	2,832	-43	6,378	3,873	-39
Qc		8,744	8,892	2	47,830	49,027	3	56,574	57,919	2
Ont.		27,515	22,182	-19	66,322	59,904	-10	93,837	82,086	-13
Man.		2,729	2,990	10	3,948	6,348	61	6,677	9,338	40
Sask.		1,962	1,756	-10	3,360	1,776	-47	5,322	3,532	-34
Alta.		13,208	13,559	3	20,925	15,200	-27	34,133	28,759	-16
B.C.		7,761	7,776	0	34,762	54,193	56	42,523	61,969	46
Canada (10,000+)		65,719	60,105	-9	189,987	191,085	1	255,706	251,190	-2
Canada (All Areas)		86,974	80,975	-7	199,323	201,094	1	286,296	282,070	-1
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		286	328	15	324	1,368	322	610	1,696	178
Barrie		623	586	-6	1,896	504	-73	2,519	1,090	-57
Belleville		452	479	6	180	0	-100	632	479	-24
Brantford		508	286	-44	684	72	-89	1,192	358	-70
Calgary		5,030	5,987	19	13,452	7,620	-43	18,482	13,607	-26
Edmonton		5,686	5,497	-3	6,624	6,840	3	12,310	12,337	0
Greater Sudbury		426	140	-67	216	276	28	642	416	-35
Guelph		107	163	52	108	1,956	##	215	2,119	##
Halifax		162	35	-78	6,648	132	-98	6,810	167	-98
Hamilton		334	1,129	238	3,684	3,876	5	4,018	5,005	25
Kelowna		601	768	28	492	2,412	390	1,093	3,180	191
Kingston		439	287	-35	180	276	53	619	563	-9
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		1,430	792	-45	5,088	2,304	-55	6,518	3,096	-53
Lethbridge		436	448	3	180	60	-67	616	508	-18
London		2,389	1,969	-18	3,900	8,544	119	6,289	10,513	67
Moncton		471	305	-35	3,156	1,680	-47	3,627	1,985	-45
Montréal		2,670	2,774	4	25,296	36,258	43	27,966	39,032	40
Oshawa		1,721	1,349	-22	7,872	3,420	-57	9,593	4,769	-50
Ottawa-Gatineau		4,366	5,052	16	15,720	3,816	-76	20,086	8,868	-56
Gatineau		541	1,904	252	5,016	264	-95	5,557	2,168	-61
Ottawa		3,825	3,148	-18	10,704	3,552	-67	14,529	6,700	-54
Peterborough		277	237	-14	0	0	-	277	237	-14
Québec		1,119	978	-13	10,368	15,996	54	11,487	16,974	48
Regina		632	502	-21	168	456	171	800	958	20
Saguenay		378	417	10	360	240	-33	738	657	-11
St. Catharines-Niagara		1,334	671	-50	2,064	1,056	-49	3,398	1,727	-49
Saint John		260	296	14	84	72	-14	344	368	7
St. John's		602	439	-27	168	144	-14	770	583	-24
Saskatoon		1,311	885	-32	3,108	1,236	-60	4,419	2,121	-52
Sherbrooke		642	360	-44	1,764	2,256	28	2,406	2,616	9
Thunder Bay		277	83	-70	84	0	-100	361	83	-77
Toronto		6,125	5,349	-13	24,684	30,480	23	30,809	35,829	16
Trois-Rivières		224	278	24	648	996	54	872	1,274	46
Vancouver		2,967	2,817	-5	27,600	42,144	53	30,567	44,961	47
Victoria		682	892	31	1,572	3,264	108	2,254	4,156	84
Windsor		703	633	-10	2,004	1,092	-46	2,707	1,725	-36
Winnipeg		2,073	2,408	16	3,672	5,640	54	5,745	8,048	40
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]

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