Canadian housing starts declined in February

OTTAWA, ON, March 15, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 242,777 units in February 2021, down from 244,963 units in January 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 national trend in housing starts declined in February, but remained elevated," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Single-detached SAAR starts declined in February following strong growth in January, particularly in Montreal. Multi-family SAAR starts also declined in several centres in February, further contributing to the decline in the overall trend."

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 245,922 units in February, a decrease of 13.5% from 284,372 units in January. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 14% in February to 231,042 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 15.8% to 163,757 units in February while single-detached urban starts decreased by 9.3% to 67,285 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14,880 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 March 2021 data on April 19 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
				February 2020				February 2021		%		February 2020		February 2021		%	February 2020		February 2021		%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.				6				8		33		9		0		-100	15		8		-47
P.E.I.				7				6		-14		68		10		-85	75		16		-79
N.S.				95				90		-5		474		173		-64	569		263		-54
N.B.				14				15		7		34		50		47	48		65		35
Atlantic				122				119		-2		585		233		-60	707		352		-50
Qc				262				382		46		2,248		3,602		60	2,510		3,984		59
Ont.				1,083				1,560		44		4,078		3,542		-13	5,161		5,102		-1
Man.				171				173		1		159		310		95	330		483		46
Sask.				60				93		55		69		119		72	129		212		64
Alta.				691				838		21		688		1,015		48	1,379		1,853		34
Prairies				922				1,104		20		916		1,444		58	1,838		2,548		39
B.C.				452				570		26		2,564		2,706		6	3,016		3,276		9
Canada (10,000+)				2,841				3,735		31		10,391		11,527		11	13,232		15,262		15
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission				15				28		87		207		131		-37	222		159		-28
Barrie				70				33		-53		0		4		##	70		37		-47
Belleville				13				14		8		2		2		-	15		16		7
Brantford				26				33		27		4		58		##	30		91		203
Calgary				298				343		15		348		299		-14	646		642		-1
Edmonton				324				409		26		296		558		89	620		967		56
Greater Sudbury				0				0		-		0		2		##	0		2		##
Guelph				1				11		##		10		55		450	11		66		##
Halifax				62				70		13		373		143		-62	435		213		-51
Hamilton				28				28		-		549		623		13	577		651		13
Kelowna				40				92		130		276		163		-41	316		255		-19
Kingston				15				20		33		0		5		##	15		25		67
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo				63				70		11		241		32		-87	304		102		-66
Lethbridge				15				23		53		12		111		##	27		134		396
London				112				194		73		84		520		##	196		714		264
Moncton				6				7		17		0		2		##	6		9		50
Montréal				113				130		15		1,330		2,929		120	1,443		3,059		112
Oshawa				48				166		246		140		176		26	188		342		82
Ottawa-Gatineau				176				227		29		1,002		527		-47	1,178		754		-36
Gatineau				23				17		-26		370		79		-79	393		96		-76
Ottawa				153				210		37		632		448		-29	785		658		-16
Peterborough				3				10		233		0		131		##	3		141		##
Québec				42				94		124		132		142		8	174		236		36
Regina				24				17		-29		42		86		105	66		103		56
Saguenay				1				3		200		20		4		-80	21		7		-67
St. Catharines-Niagara				88				59		-33		108		93		-14	196		152		-22
Saint John				4				5		25		33		0		-100	37		5		-86
St. John's				5				8		60		8		0		-100	13		8		-38
Saskatoon				33				73		121		24		29		21	57		102		79
Sherbrooke				8				40		400		36		140		289	44		180		309
Thunder Bay				0				0		-		0		0		-	0		0		-
Toronto				230				456		98		2,176		1,149		-47	2,406		1,605		-33
Trois-Rivières				1				4		300		36		11		-69	37		15		-59
Vancouver				210				206		-2		1,420		2,011		42	1,630		2,217		36
Victoria				68				74		9		414		83		-80	482		157		-67
Windsor				42				32		-24		23		31		35	65		63		-3
Winnipeg				155				152		-2		159		299		88	314		451		44
Total				2,339				3,131		34		9,505		10,549		11	11,844		13,680		16
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
		January 2021	February 2021	%	January 2021	February 2021	%	January 2021	February 2021	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		520	443	-15	109	3	-97	629	446	-29
P.E.I.		890	251	-72	192	120	-38	1,082	371	-66
N.S.		1,831	1,782	-3	3,942	2,366	-40	5,773	4,148	-28
N.B.		1,102	963	-13	1,658	972	-41	2,760	1,935	-30
Qc		19,486	10,486	-46	76,525	62,491	-18	96,011	72,977	-24
Ont.		25,025	28,397	13	63,156	47,529	-25	88,181	75,926	-14
Man.		1,848	2,572	39	6,408	3,720	-42	8,256	6,292	-24
Sask.		1,321	1,689	28	3,036	1,428	-53	4,357	3,117	-28
Alta.		12,017	11,970	0	16,024	12,611	-21	28,041	24,581	-12
B.C.		10,151	8,732	-14	23,473	32,517	39	33,624	41,249	23
Canada (10,000+)		74,191	67,285	-9	194,523	163,757	-16	268,714	231,042	-14
Canada (All Areas)		84,652	77,342	-9	199,721	168,579	-16	284,372	245,922	-14
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		367	452	23	636	1,572	147	1,003	2,024	102
Barrie		789	864	10	2,652	48	-98	3,441	912	-73
Belleville		162	672	315	168	24	-86	330	696	111
Brantford		477	625	31	1,800	696	-61	2,277	1,321	-42
Calgary		4,846	4,693	-3	9,336	3,588	-62	14,182	8,281	-42
Edmonton		5,856	5,885	0	5,196	6,696	29	11,052	12,581	14
Greater Sudbury		553	134	-76	0	24	##	553	158	-71
Guelph		305	208	-32	24	660	##	329	868	164
Halifax		1,254	1,373	9	3,492	1,716	-51	4,746	3,089	-35
Hamilton		1,086	553	-49	1,392	7,476	437	2,478	8,029	224
Kelowna		918	1,045	14	372	1,956	426	1,290	3,001	133
Kingston		245	533	118	1,272	60	-95	1,517	593	-61
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		976	846	-13	9,348	384	-96	10,324	1,230	-88
Lethbridge		359	335	-7	96	1,332	##	455	1,667	266
London		3,553	3,314	-7	408	6,240	##	3,961	9,554	141
Moncton		237	351	48	1,176	24	-98	1,413	375	-73
Montréal		8,078	3,077	-62	29,412	36,769	25	37,490	39,846	6
Oshawa		1,901	2,317	22	396	2,112	433	2,297	4,429	93
Ottawa-Gatineau		5,572	5,506	-1	5,316	6,324	19	10,888	11,830	9
Gatineau		1,796	623	-65	1,500	948	-37	3,296	1,571	-52
Ottawa		3,776	4,883	29	3,816	5,376	41	7,592	10,259	35
Peterborough		505	452	-10	0	1,572	##	505	2,024	301
Québec		2,585	1,992	-23	10,992	1,704	-84	13,577	3,696	-73
Regina		253	227	-10	360	1,032	187	613	1,259	105
Saguenay		1,434	222	-85	360	48	-87	1,794	270	-85
St. Catharines-Niagara		1,042	894	-14	1,356	1,116	-18	2,398	2,010	-16
Saint John		381	341	-10	24	0	-100	405	341	-16
St. John's		448	418	-7	96	0	-100	544	418	-23
Saskatoon		1,030	1,465	42	2,568	348	-86	3,598	1,813	-50
Sherbrooke		1,337	1,828	37	984	1,680	71	2,321	3,508	51
Thunder Bay		95	105	11	0	0	-	95	105	11
Toronto		6,089	10,622	74	30,876	13,788	-55	36,965	24,410	-34
Trois-Rivières		321	353	10	348	132	-62	669	485	-28
Vancouver		3,597	3,622	1	14,196	24,132	70	17,793	27,754	56
Victoria		1,088	1,079	-1	1,716	996	-42	2,804	2,075	-26
Windsor		550	604	10	1,380	372	-73	1,930	976	-49
Winnipeg		1,515	2,085	38	6,180	3,588	-42	7,695	5,673	-26
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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