Canadian housing starts continued to trend lower in October

OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 16, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 264,264 units in October, down from 270,661 units in September, 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.

October 2021 Housing Starts (CNW Group/Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

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

"The six-month trend in housing starts declined from September to October, as the retreat in total starts from their earlier 2021 levels continued," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "For SAAR housing starts in Canada's urban areas, a slight increase in single-detached starts didn't offset a larger decrease in multi-family starts in October and led to a decline in overall starts for the month. On a trend and monthly SAAR basis, however, the level of housing starts activity in Canada remains high in historical terms. Among Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver was the only market to register growth in total SAAR starts in October, due to a rebound from the prior month 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 236,554 units in October, a decrease of 5.3% from 249,922 units in September. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 3.7% in October to 214,797 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 5.3% to 156,781 units in October, while single-detached urban starts increased by 1% to 58,016 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,757 units.

Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data  are accessible in English and French on our website and the CMHC Housing Market Information Portal. Housing starts data is available on the eleventh business day each month. We will release the November data on December 15 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
			October 2020		October 2021		%		October 2020		October 2021		%		October 2020		October 2021			%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.			49		50		2		7		16		129		56		66			18
P.E.I.			35		31		-11		15		80		433		50		111			122
N.S.			131		351		168		66		426		##		197		777			294
N.B.			76		92		21		92		165		79		168		257			53
Atlantic			291		524		80		180		687		282		471		1,211			157
Qc			830		771		-7		3,635		4,264		17		4,465		5,035			13
Ont.			2,406		1,969		-18		4,831		4,689		-3		7,237		6,658			-8
Man.			222		197		-11		597		156		-74		819		353			-57
Sask.			138		134		-3		61		92		51		199		226			14
Alta.			848		1,105		30		1,812		1,814		0		2,660		2,919			10
Prairies			1,208		1,436		19		2,470		2,062		-17		3,678		3,498			-5
B.C.			578		609		5		1,867		2,079		11		2,445		2,688			10
Canada (10,000+)			5,313		5,309		0		12,983		13,781		6		18,296		19,090			4
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission			31		23		-26		86		44		-49		117		67			-43
Barrie			52		113		117		264		119		-55		316		232			-27
Belleville			44		33		-25		64		14		-78		108		47			-56
Brantford			119		14		-88		15		5		-67		134		19			-86
Calgary			316		490		55		666		765		15		982		1,255			28
Edmonton			396		463		17		1,074		1,000		-7		1,470		1,463			0
Greater Sudbury			15		28		87		32		6		-81		47		34			-28
Guelph			26		6		-77		99		8		-92		125		14			-89
Halifax			72		264		267		35		408		##		107		672			##
Hamilton			57		33		-42		457		51		-89		514		84			-84
Kelowna			31		49		58		64		29		-55		95		78			-18
Kingston			35		30		-14		36		22		-39		71		52			-27
Kitchener-Cambridge- Waterloo			78		56		-28		173		555		221		251		611			143
Lethbridge			30		23		-23		7		22		214		37		45			22
London			183		155		-15		104		82		-21		287		237			-17
Moncton			39		28		-28		46		133		189		85		161			89
Montréal			300		241		-20		1,795		2,170		21		2,095		2,411			15
Oshawa			100		94		-6		233		270		16		333		364			9
Ottawa-Gatineau			363		350		-4		567		1,179		108		930		1,529			64
Gatineau			98		65		-34		84		253		201		182		318			75
Ottawa			265		285		8		483		926		92		748		1,211			62
Peterborough			52		10		-81		25		0		-100		77		10			-87
Québec			110		76		-31		669		586		-12		779		662			-15
Regina			19		61		221		24		24		-		43		85			98
Saguenay			21		22		5		37		20		-46		58		42			-28
St. Catharines-Niagara			114		64		-44		224		221		-1		338		285			-16
Saint John			18		26		44		0		8		##		18		34			89
St. John's			41		45		10		7		15		114		48		60			25
Saskatoon			110		64		-42		32		55		72		142		119			-16
Sherbrooke			37		37		-		438		226		-48		475		263			-45
Thunder Bay			20		11		-45		4		0		-100		24		11			-54
Toronto			714		539		-25		2,287		2,105		-8		3,001		2,644			-12
Trois-Rivières			16		27		69		64		64		-		80		91			14
Vancouver			263		262		0		1,011		1,512		50		1,274		1,774			39
Victoria			49		70		43		241		267		11		290		337			16
Windsor			83		32		-61		103		45		-56		186		77			-59
Winnipeg			186		154		-17		390		137		-65		576		291			-49
Total			4,140		3,993		-4		11,373		12,167		7		15,513		16,160			4
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
				September 2021		October 2021		%		September 2021		October 2021		%		September 2021		October 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.				473		465		-2		152		191		26		625		656	5
P.E.I.				270		279		3		84		960		##		354		1,239	250
N.S.				2,374		4,073		72		1,509		5,155		242		3,883		9,228	138
N.B.				992		953		-4		1,121		1,965		75		2,113		2,918	38
Qc				6,940		7,536		9		46,495		44,078		-5		53,435		51,614	-3
Ont.				22,502		21,025		-7		68,520		54,795		-20		91,022		75,820	-17
Man.				2,360		2,411		2		6,264		1,872		-70		8,624		4,283	-50
Sask.				1,084		1,251		15		5,352		1,104		-79		6,436		2,355	-63
Alta.				12,575		12,565		0		12,383		21,634		75		24,958		34,199	37
B.C.				7,900		7,458		-6		23,627		25,027		6		31,527		32,485	3
Canada (10,000+)				57,470		58,016		1		165,507		156,781		-5		222,977		214,797	-4
Canada (All Areas)				76,225		73,374		-4		173,700		163,180		-6		249,922		236,554	-5
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission				343		293		-15		1,128		528		-53		1,471		821	-44
Barrie				1,058		1,211		14		1,308		1,428		9		2,366		2,639	12
Belleville				289		353		22		84		168		100		373		521	40
Brantford				112		133		19		0		60		##		112		193	72
Calgary				5,166		5,991		16		6,504		9,180		41		11,670		15,171	30
Edmonton				5,509		5,422		-2		5,196		12,000		131		10,705		17,422	63
Greater Sudbury				167		216		29		1,860		72		-96		2,027		288	-86
Guelph				197		115		-42		0		96		##		197		211	7
Halifax				1,582		2,803		77		1,212		4,896		304		2,794		7,699	176
Hamilton				432		395		-9		516		612		19		948		1,007	6
Kelowna				925		781		-16		1,536		348		-77		2,461		1,129	-54
Kingston				252		414		64		72		264		267		324		678	109
Kitchener-Cambridge- Waterloo				678		579		-15		2,016		6,660		230		2,694		7,239	169
Lethbridge				183		242		32		108		264		144		291		506	74
London				2,114		1,908		-10		2,856		984		-66		4,970		2,892	-42
Moncton				312		297		-5		324		1,596		393		636		1,893	198
Montréal				2,518		2,542		1		31,582		25,638		-19		34,100		28,180	-17
Oshawa				1,163		1,053		-9		1,992		3,240		63		3,155		4,293	36
Ottawa-Gatineau				3,741		3,512		-6		11,976		14,148		18		15,717		17,660	12
Gatineau				563		650		15		6,288		3,036		-52		6,851		3,686	-46
Ottawa				3,178		2,862		-10		5,688		11,112		95		8,866		13,974	58
Peterborough				290		113		-61		0		0		-		290		113	-61
Québec				774		888		15		8,340		7,032		-16		9,114		7,920	-13
Regina				378		588		56		612		288		-53		990		876	-12
Saguenay				54		244		352		192		240		25		246		484	97
St. Catharines-Niagara				2,007		580		-71		1,944		2,652		36		3,951		3,232	-18
Saint John				285		308		8		576		96		-83		861		404	-53
St. John's				421		421		-		120		180		50		541		601	11
Saskatoon				675		640		-5		4,704		660		-86		5,379		1,300	-76
Sherbrooke				337		393		17		2,724		2,712		0		3,061		3,105	1
Thunder Bay				91		59		-35		0		0		-		91		59	-35
Toronto				5,919		6,331		7		49,416		25,260		-49		55,335		31,591	-43
Trois-Rivières				259		326		26		1,440		768		-47		1,699		1,094	-36
Vancouver				3,095		3,083		0		11,100		18,144		63		14,195		21,227	50
Victoria				705		769		9		4,272		3,204		-25		4,977		3,973	-20
Windsor				351		351		-		384		540		41		735		891	21
Winnipeg				1,973		2,064		5		5,988		1,644		-73		7,961		3,708	-53
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Information on this release: Media Relations, CMHC, [email protected]

Related Links

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