Canadian housing starts increased in August

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 9, 2020 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 213,144 units in August 2020, up from 204,597 units in July 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.

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

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

"The national trend in housing starts increased for a third consecutive month in August," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Higher multi-family starts in Ontario, including Toronto, drove the national increase. We expect national starts to trend lower by the end of 2020 as a result of the negative impact of COVID-19 on economic and housing indicators."

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 262,396 units in August, an increase of 6.9% from 245,425 units in July. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 7.1% in August to 248,154 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 9.1% to 201,214 units in August while single-detached urban starts decreased by 1.0% to 46,940 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14,242 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.

Like many other government organizations, businesses and individuals, we are closely following developments around COVID-19. The monthly release of our Preliminary Housing Starts data will continue as planned. CMHC will report any impact on our ability to collect housing data.

We are always looking to improve our products and the way we share key housing market data and analysis. As such, starting in November 2020, we will be moving our monthly housing starts data and news release from the 6th to 11th business day. This allows us to deliver a complete package of data all at once, rather than releasing preliminary data at an earlier date. October housing starts will be released at 8:15 ET on Tuesday, November 17, 2020. 

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.

For more information, follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
		Single-Detached					All Others			Total
		August 2019		August 2020	%		August 2019	August 2020	%	August 2019	August 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		49		71	45		26	6	-77	75	77	3
P.E.I.		17		25	47		49	144	194	66	169	156
N.S.		176		150	-15		221	135	-39	397	285	-28
N.B.		101		78	-23		231	290	26	332	368	11
Atlantic		343		324	-6		527	575	9	870	899	3
Qc		440		438	0		2,632	3,186	21	3,072	3,624	18
Ont.		2,238		2,047	-9		5,240	7,841	50	7,478	9,888	32
Man.		174		163	-6		320	215	-33	494	378	-23
Sask.		92		85	-8		147	147	-	239	232	-3
Alta.		961		701	-27		1,647	1,052	-36	2,608	1,753	-33
Prairies		1,227		949	-23		2,114	1,414	-33	3,341	2,363	-29
B.C.		662		629	-5		2,290	2,970	30	2,952	3,599	22
Canada (10,000+)		4,910		4,387	-11		12,803	15,986	25	17,713	20,373	15
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		28		35	25		69	89	29	97	124	28
Barrie		45		69	53		29	4	-86	74	73	-1
Belleville		50		40	-20		23	5	-78	73	45	-38
Brantford		55		146	165		14	56	300	69	202	193
Calgary		337		211	-37		714	525	-26	1,051	736	-30
Edmonton		440		371	-16		812	454	-44	1,252	825	-34
Greater Sudbury		29		23	-21		22	12	-45	51	35	-31
Guelph		39		19	-51		186	0	-100	225	19	-92
Halifax		119		84	-29		203	106	-48	322	190	-41
Hamilton		147		77	-48		68	235	246	215	312	45
Kelowna		33		45	36		441	158	-64	474	203	-57
Kingston		46		21	-54		222	62	-72	268	83	-69
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		70		97	39		772	103	-87	842	200	-76
Lethbridge		36		31	-14		14	5	-64	50	36	-28
London		164		168	2		419	68	-84	583	236	-60
Moncton		32		16	-50		120	127	6	152	143	-6
Montréal		172		170	-1		1,859	1,984	7	2,031	2,154	6
Oshawa		70		71	1		29	647	##	99	718	##
Ottawa-Gatineau		302		304	1		398	1,472	270	700	1,776	154
Gatineau		45		8	-82		48	149	210	93	157	69
Ottawa		257		296	15		350	1,323	278	607	1,619	167
Peterborough		42		31	-26		13	68	423	55	99	80
Québec		44		60	36		463	721	56	507	781	54
Regina		28		19	-32		5	63	##	33	82	148
Saguenay		29		15	-48		10	2	-80	39	17	-56
St. Catharines-Niagara		121		101	-17		137	102	-26	258	203	-21
Saint John		20		14	-30		43	24	-44	63	38	-40
St. John's		36		61	69		16	4	-75	52	65	25
Saskatoon		59		58	-2		111	51	-54	170	109	-36
Sherbrooke		14		24	71		34	120	253	48	144	200
Thunder Bay		17		5	-71		4	0	-100	21	5	-76
Toronto		557		491	-12		2,574	4,752	85	3,131	5,243	67
Trois-Rivières		12		12	-		17	12	-29	29	24	-17
Vancouver		326		312	-4		1,356	2,208	63	1,682	2,520	50
Victoria		56		43	-23		83	181	118	139	224	61
Windsor		62		55	-11		77	113	47	139	168	21
Winnipeg		142		129	-9		256	198	-23	398	327	-18
Total		3,779		3,428	-9		11,613	14,731	27	15,392	18,159	18
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
		July 2020	August 2020	%	July 2020	August 2020	%	July 2020	August 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		478	609	27	143	72	-50	621	681	10
P.E.I.		222	247	11	168	1,728	##	390	1,975	406
N.S.		1,465	1,466	0	5,874	1,558	-73	7,339	3,024	-59
N.B.		532	571	7	6,082	3,477	-43	6,614	4,048	-39
Qc		7,220	6,343	-12	50,872	50,236	-1	58,092	56,579	-3
Ont.		20,979	21,116	1	61,627	92,006	49	82,606	113,122	37
Man.		1,835	1,698	-7	4,356	2,580	-41	6,191	4,278	-31
Sask.		1,015	904	-11	6,840	1,764	-74	7,855	2,668	-66
Alta.		6,941	7,068	2	15,087	12,147	-19	22,028	19,215	-13
B.C.		6,726	6,918	3	33,330	35,646	7	40,056	42,564	6
Canada (10,000+)		47,413	46,940	-1	184,379	201,214	9	231,792	248,154	7
Canada (All Areas)		57,374	57,234	0	188,053	205,161	9	245,425	262,396	7
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		293	363	24	192	1,068	456	485	1,431	195
Barrie		218	409	88	192	48	-75	410	457	11
Belleville		503	378	-25	96	60	-38	599	438	-27
Brantford		444	844	90	516	672	30	960	1,516	58
Calgary		2,764	2,386	-14	5,952	6,300	6	8,716	8,686	0
Edmonton		3,476	3,842	11	7,284	5,448	-25	10,760	9,290	-14
Greater Sudbury		100	145	45	144	144	-	244	289	18
Guelph		229	191	-17	0	0	-	229	191	-17
Halifax		992	783	-21	5,676	1,272	-78	6,668	2,055	-69
Hamilton		366	659	80	6,564	2,820	-57	6,930	3,479	-50
Kelowna		390	733	88	3,072	1,896	-38	3,462	2,629	-24
Kingston		230	200	-13	984	744	-24	1,214	944	-22
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		1,306	1,386	6	948	1,236	30	2,254	2,622	16
Lethbridge		208	305	47	936	60	-94	1,144	365	-68
London		1,905	1,527	-20	1,308	816	-38	3,213	2,343	-27
Moncton		154	128	-17	4,440	1,524	-66	4,594	1,652	-64
Montréal		2,558	2,438	-5	33,109	24,769	-25	35,667	27,207	-24
Oshawa		574	803	40	1,032	7,764	##	1,606	8,567	433
Ottawa-Gatineau		3,556	2,976	-16	7,104	17,664	149	10,660	20,640	94
Gatineau		550	71	-87	2,100	1,788	-15	2,650	1,859	-30
Ottawa		3,006	2,905	-3	5,004	15,876	217	8,010	18,781	134
Peterborough		188	222	18	24	816	##	212	1,038	390
Québec		1,009	909	-10	5,712	8,652	51	6,721	9,561	42
Regina		232	185	-20	672	756	13	904	941	4
Saguenay		287	139	-52	552	24	-96	839	163	-81
St. Catharines-Niagara		1,181	1,112	-6	1,860	1,224	-34	3,041	2,336	-23
Saint John		140	119	-15	936	288	-69	1,076	407	-62
St. John's		404	530	31	120	48	-60	524	578	10
Saskatoon		770	660	-14	5,976	612	-90	6,746	1,272	-81
Sherbrooke		589	645	10	744	1,440	94	1,333	2,085	56
Thunder Bay		79	32	-59	72	0	-100	151	32	-79
Toronto		6,659	5,016	-25	41,628	57,024	37	48,287	62,040	28
Trois-Rivières		235	237	1	672	144	-79	907	381	-58
Vancouver		3,236	3,258	1	21,168	26,496	25	24,404	29,754	22
Victoria		771	560	-27	3,396	2,172	-36	4,167	2,732	-34
Windsor		433	529	22	540	1,356	151	973	1,885	94
Winnipeg		1,435	1,336	-7	4,092	2,376	-42	5,527	3,712	-33
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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