Canadian housing starts declined in March

OTTAWA, April 8, 2020 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 204,717 units in March 2020, compared to 209,109 units in February 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 declined in March, likely indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to impact residential construction activity." said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Activity in Toronto and Montréal trended lower, reflecting broader declines in their respective provinces. While Vancouver registered an up-tick, it was not sufficient to offset an overall decline in British Columbia. Activity trended lower in the Atlantic region, but conditions were mixed in the Prairies, as lower activity in Saskatchewan was offset by higher activity in Alberta and Manitoba."

Like many other government organizations, businesses and individuals, we are closely following developments around COVID-19. CMHC is stress-testing pandemic scenarios to assess impacts as events unfold. The monthly release of our Preliminary Housing Starts data will continue as planned. CMHC will continue to monitor this issue and report any impact on our ability to collect housing data.

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 195,174 units in March, a decrease of 7.3% from 210,574 units in February. The SAAR of urban starts also decreased by 7.3% in March to 182,553 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 13.4% to 124,073 units in March while single-detached urban starts increased by 8.8% to 58,480 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12,621 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.

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
		March 2019	March 2020	%	March 2019	March 2020	%	March 2019	March 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		6	4	-33	1	1	-	7	5	-29
P.E.I.		2	4	100	0	12	##	2	16	##
N.S.		51	89	75	304	36	-88	355	125	-65
N.B.		5	14	180	2	89	##	7	103	##
Atlantic		64	111	73	307	138	-55	371	249	-33
Qc		384	380	-1	3,502	2,447	-30	3,886	2,827	-27
Ont.		833	1,327	59	3,408	3,187	-6	4,241	4,514	6
Man.		161	145	-10	246	248	1	407	393	-3
Sask.		51	64	25	51	48	-6	102	112	10
Alta.		534	832	56	718	1,469	105	1,252	2,301	84
Prairies		746	1,041	40	1,015	1,765	74	1,761	2,806	59
B.C.		516	515	0	2,078	1,919	-8	2,594	2,434	-6
Canada (10,000+)		2,543	3,374	33	10,310	9,456	-8	12,853	12,830	0
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		23	25	9	125	26	-79	148	51	-66
Barrie		5	22	340	8	5	-38	13	27	108
Belleville		20	16	-20	0	0	-	20	16	-20
Brantford		44	69	57	8	18	125	52	87	67
Calgary		186	376	102	334	568	70	520	944	82
Edmonton		260	374	44	260	863	232	520	1,237	138
Greater Sudbury		0	0	-	0	4	##	0	4	##
Guelph		13	16	23	0	103	##	13	119	##
Halifax		39	58	49	299	10	-97	338	68	-80
Hamilton		41	32	-22	136	87	-36	177	119	-33
Kelowna		22	34	55	21	86	310	43	120	179
Kingston		3	18	##	33	7	-79	36	25	-31
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		54	74	37	63	376	497	117	450	285
Lethbridge		16	28	75	26	4	-85	42	32	-24
London		74	119	61	115	207	80	189	326	72
Moncton		3	2	-33	0	46	##	3	48	##
Montréal		143	130	-9	2,434	1,328	-45	2,577	1,458	-43
Oshawa		26	41	58	32	61	91	58	102	76
Ottawa-Gatineau		169	211	25	551	423	-23	720	634	-12
Gatineau		37	21	-43	406	90	-78	443	111	-75
Ottawa		132	190	44	145	333	130	277	523	89
Peterborough		18	12	-33	40	122	205	58	134	131
Québec		43	52	21	181	394	118	224	446	99
Regina		18	18	-	39	2	-95	57	20	-65
Saguenay		4	0	-100	2	0	-100	6	0	-100
St. Catharines-Niagara		110	66	-40	133	44	-67	243	110	-55
Saint John		1	4	300	0	42	##	1	46	##
St. John's		4	3	-25	0	1	##	4	4	-
Saskatoon		31	42	35	8	41	413	39	83	113
Sherbrooke		45	26	-42	279	260	-7	324	286	-12
Thunder Bay		0	3	##	0	0	-	0	3	##
Toronto		98	386	294	2,522	1,530	-39	2,620	1,916	-27
Trois-Rivières		6	4	-33	23	8	-65	29	12	-59
Vancouver		263	219	-17	1,443	1,507	4	1,706	1,726	1
Victoria		50	56	12	124	46	-63	174	102	-41
Windsor		16	49	206	18	107	494	34	156	359
Winnipeg		135	127	-6	197	247	25	332	374	13
Total		1,983	2,712	37	9,454	8,573	-9	11,437	11,285	-1
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
		February 2020	March 2020	%	February 2020	March 2020	%	February 2020	March 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		317	272	-14	387	54	-86	704	326	-54
P.E.I.		303	185	-39	816	144	-82	1,119	329	-71
N.S.		1,956	1,717	-12	6,007	758	-87	7,963	2,475	-69
N.B.		972	1,658	71	431	1,249	190	1,403	2,907	107
Qc		8,132	6,606	-19	37,010	34,319	-7	45,142	40,925	-9
Ont.		20,340	24,150	19	55,914	42,313	-24	76,254	66,463	-13
Man.		2,652	1,931	-27	1,908	2,976	56	4,560	4,907	8
Sask.		1,142	1,115	-2	828	576	-30	1,970	1,691	-14
Alta.		10,488	13,335	27	8,892	18,441	107	19,380	31,776	64
B.C.		7,472	7,511	1	31,032	23,243	-25	38,504	30,754	-20
Canada (10,000+)		53,774	58,480	9	143,225	124,073	-13	196,999	182,553	-7
Canada (All Areas)		63,934	68,312	7	146,640	126,860	-13	210,574	195,174	-7
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		254	357	41	2,484	312	-87	2,738	669	-76
Barrie		2,977	830	-72	0	60	##	2,977	890	-70
Belleville		743	533	-28	24	0	-100	767	533	-31
Brantford		536	616	15	48	216	350	584	832	42
Calgary		4,406	5,866	33	4,176	6,816	63	8,582	12,682	48
Edmonton		4,873	5,382	10	3,552	10,356	192	8,425	15,738	87
Greater Sudbury		133	122	-8	0	48	##	133	170	28
Guelph		14	207	##	120	1,236	##	134	1,443	##
Halifax		1,340	1,182	-12	4,476	120	-97	5,816	1,302	-78
Hamilton		464	379	-18	6,588	1,044	-84	7,052	1,423	-80
Kelowna		571	472	-17	3,312	1,032	-69	3,883	1,504	-61
Kingston		487	442	-9	0	84	##	487	526	8
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		746	845	13	2,892	4,512	56	3,638	5,357	47
Lethbridge		209	422	102	144	48	-67	353	470	33
London		1,917	1,937	1	1,008	2,484	146	2,925	4,421	51
Moncton		451	221	-51	0	552	##	451	773	71
Montréal		2,710	2,423	-11	16,892	15,789	-7	19,602	18,212	-7
Oshawa		757	733	-3	1,680	732	-56	2,437	1,465	-40
Ottawa-Gatineau		4,924	3,815	-23	12,024	5,076	-58	16,948	8,891	-48
Gatineau		536	376	-30	4,440	1,080	-76	4,976	1,456	-71
Ottawa		4,388	3,439	-22	7,584	3,996	-47	11,972	7,435	-38
Peterborough		129	357	177	0	1,464	##	129	1,821	##
Québec		913	787	-14	1,584	4,728	198	2,497	5,515	121
Regina		325	238	-27	504	24	-95	829	262	-68
Saguenay		73	3	-96	240	0	-100	313	3	-99
St. Catharines-Niagara		1,245	1,108	-11	1,296	528	-59	2,541	1,636	-36
Saint John		310	333	7	396	504	27	706	837	19
St. John's		255	196	-23	96	12	-88	351	208	-41
Saskatoon		707	782	11	288	492	71	995	1,274	28
Sherbrooke		382	331	-13	432	3,120	##	814	3,451	324
Thunder Bay		114	3,645	##	0	0	-	114	3,645	##
Toronto		5,093	6,739	32	26,112	18,360	-30	31,205	25,099	-20
Trois-Rivières		111	106	-5	432	96	-78	543	202	-63
Vancouver		3,497	3,152	-10	17,040	18,084	6	20,537	21,236	3
Victoria		963	674	-30	4,968	552	-89	5,931	1,226	-79
Windsor		918	1,203	31	276	1,284	365	1,194	2,487	108
Winnipeg		2,283	1,589	-30	1,908	2,964	55	4,191	4,553	9
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Angelina Ritacco , Media Relations, CMHC , 416-218-3320, [email protected]

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