Canadian housing starts increased in July

OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 11, 2020 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 204,376 units in July 2020, up from 199,778 units in June 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 second month in July," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Higher multi-family starts in major urban areas, including Toronto, Vancouver and oil-producing centres in the Prairies drove the national increase. Following declines in previous months from COVID-19 measures, higher activity in June and July leaves the trend in housing starts in line with the long-run average level of housing starts. We expect national starts to trend lower in the near term 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 245,604 units in July, an increase of 15.8% from 212,095 units in June. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 17.4% in July to 231,995 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 18.8% to 184,431 units in July while single-detached urban starts increased by 12.3% to 47,564 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13,609 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.

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
		July 2019	July 2020	%	July 2019	July 2020	%	July 2019	July 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		40	56	40	14	13	-7	54	69	28
P.E.I.		27	27	-	124	14	-89	151	41	-73
N.S.		141	152	8	176	492	180	317	644	103
N.B.		105	86	-18	164	528	222	269	614	128
Atlantic		313	321	3	478	1,047	119	791	1,368	73
Qc		615	753	22	3,232	3,974	23	3,847	4,727	23
Ont.		1,892	2,132	13	4,254	5,258	24	6,146	7,390	20
Man.		202	184	-9	324	363	12	526	547	4
Sask.		76	127	67	39	570	##	115	697	##
Alta.		828	690	-17	1,643	1,273	-23	2,471	1,963	-21
Prairies		1,106	1,001	-9	2,006	2,206	10	3,112	3,207	3
B.C.		682	642	-6	3,495	2,777	-21	4,177	3,419	-18
Canada (10,000+)		4,608	4,849	5	13,465	15,262	13	18,073	20,111	11
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		28	23	-18	218	16	-93	246	39	-84
Barrie		43	32	-26	32	16	-50	75	48	-36
Belleville		49	56	14	8	8	-	57	64	12
Brantford		74	54	-27	14	43	207	88	97	10
Calgary		283	241	-15	408	496	22	691	737	7
Edmonton		373	333	-11	988	607	-39	1,361	940	-31
Greater Sudbury		26	17	-35	18	12	-33	44	29	-34
Guelph		25	19	-24	53	0	-100	78	19	-76
Halifax		81	101	25	148	473	220	229	574	151
Hamilton		39	34	-13	85	547	##	124	581	369
Kelowna		48	34	-29	74	256	246	122	290	138
Kingston		28	26	-7	61	82	34	89	108	21
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		68	93	37	347	79	-77	415	172	-59
Lethbridge		36	23	-36	107	78	-27	143	101	-29
London		151	222	47	124	109	-12	275	331	20
Moncton		31	26	-16	89	370	316	120	396	230
Montréal		247	259	5	1,867	2,776	49	2,114	3,035	44
Oshawa		99	56	-43	42	86	105	141	142	1
Ottawa-Gatineau		320	386	21	579	592	2	899	978	9
Gatineau		44	63	43	256	175	-32	300	238	-21
Ottawa		276	323	17	323	417	29	599	740	24
Peterborough		17	26	53	95	2	-98	112	28	-75
Québec		70	96	37	679	476	-30	749	572	-24
Regina		19	22	16	5	56	##	24	78	225
Saguenay		15	38	153	10	46	360	25	84	236
St. Catharines-Niagara		72	122	69	53	155	192	125	277	122
Saint John		26	19	-27	0	78	##	26	97	273
St. John's		25	44	76	6	10	67	31	54	74
Saskatoon		51	95	86	16	498	##	67	593	##
Sherbrooke		26	39	50	55	62	13	81	101	25
Thunder Bay		9	13	44	9	6	-33	18	19	6
Toronto		456	652	43	2,315	3,469	50	2,771	4,121	49
Trois-Rivières		18	21	17	32	56	75	50	77	54
Vancouver		345	315	-9	2,353	1,764	-25	2,698	2,079	-23
Victoria		46	80	74	261	283	8	307	363	18
Windsor		86	41	-52	335	45	-87	421	86	-80
Winnipeg		169	141	-17	246	341	39	415	482	16
Total		3,499	3,799	9	11,732	13,993	19	15,231	17,792	17
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
		June 2020	July 2020	%	June 2020	July 2020	%	June 2020	July 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		260	486	87	115	147	28	375	633	69
P.E.I.		216	218	1	1,608	168	-90	1,824	386	-79
N.S.		1,180	1,441	22	1,043	5,876	463	2,223	7,317	229
N.B.		587	530	-10	1,736	6,117	252	2,323	6,647	186
Qc		6,630	7,301	10	48,068	50,763	6	54,698	58,064	6
Ont.		17,500	21,252	21	59,013	61,745	5	76,513	82,997	8
Man.		1,690	1,834	9	5,340	4,356	-18	7,030	6,190	-12
Sask.		800	1,012	27	1,512	6,840	352	2,312	7,852	240
Alta.		7,068	6,832	-3	7,154	15,099	111	14,222	21,931	54
B.C.		6,418	6,658	4	29,636	33,320	12	36,054	39,978	11
Canada (10,000+)		42,349	47,564	12	155,225	184,431	19	197,574	231,995	17
Canada (All Areas)		51,634	57,429	11	160,462	188,176	17	212,095	245,604	16
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		286	287	0	300	192	-36	586	479	-18
Barrie		411	199	-52	2,472	192	-92	2,883	391	-86
Belleville		268	514	92	120	96	-20	388	610	57
Brantford		425	419	-1	144	516	258	569	935	64
Calgary		2,328	2,841	22	2,484	5,952	140	4,812	8,793	83
Edmonton		3,471	3,432	-1	3,468	7,284	110	6,939	10,716	54
Greater Sudbury		126	99	-21	48	144	200	174	243	40
Guelph		94	237	152	144	0	-100	238	237	0
Halifax		744	1,019	37	684	5,676	##	1,428	6,695	369
Hamilton		329	336	2	2,376	6,564	176	2,705	6,900	155
Kelowna		226	385	70	2,628	3,072	17	2,854	3,457	21
Kingston		202	230	14	576	984	71	778	1,214	56
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		709	1,266	79	6,672	948	-86	7,381	2,214	-70
Lethbridge		186	192	3	840	936	11	1,026	1,128	10
London		1,429	1,918	34	1,212	1,308	8	2,641	3,226	22
Moncton		194	158	-19	1,128	4,440	294	1,322	4,598	248
Montréal		2,310	2,554	11	37,122	33,194	-11	39,432	35,748	-9
Oshawa		412	539	31	1,212	1,032	-15	1,624	1,571	-3
Ottawa-Gatineau		2,882	3,510	22	7,980	7,104	-11	10,862	10,614	-2
Gatineau		338	558	65	3,312	2,100	-37	3,650	2,658	-27
Ottawa		2,544	2,952	16	4,668	5,004	7	7,212	7,956	10
Peterborough		120	179	49	0	24	##	120	203	69
Québec		805	1,016	26	10,536	5,712	-46	11,341	6,728	-41
Regina		116	236	103	156	672	331	272	908	234
Saguenay		212	302	42	276	552	100	488	854	75
St. Catharines-Niagara		1,440	1,201	-17	2,988	1,860	-38	4,428	3,061	-31
Saint John		122	144	18	348	936	169	470	1,080	130
St. John's		199	399	101	108	120	11	307	519	69
Saskatoon		582	800	37	1,344	5,976	345	1,926	6,776	252
Sherbrooke		382	578	51	3,744	744	-80	4,126	1,322	-68
Thunder Bay		89	83	-7	264	72	-73	353	155	-56
Toronto		5,970	6,838	15	33,816	41,628	23	39,786	48,466	22
Trois-Rivières		179	232	30	816	672	-18	995	904	-9
Vancouver		3,355	3,227	-4	20,196	21,168	5	23,551	24,395	4
Victoria		748	765	2	1,608	3,396	111	2,356	4,161	77
Windsor		616	421	-32	1,212	540	-55	1,828	961	-47
Winnipeg		1,344	1,436	7	5,028	4,092	-19	6,372	5,528	-13
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

on this release: Angelina Ritacco, Media Relations, CMHC, 416-218-3320, [email protected]

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