Canadian housing starts trend higher in November

OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 267,365 units in November, up from 264,583 units in October, 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.

Canadian housing starts trend higher in November (CMHC) (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 was higher from October to November, with total starts rebounding from their declines in prior months," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "For SAAR housing starts in Canada's urban areas, there was a slight decrease in single-detached starts, while multi-family starts experienced a large increase in November, resulting in higher overall starts for the month. On a trend and monthly SAAR basis, the level of housing starts activity in Canada remains high in historical terms. Among Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver was the only negative market, while Toronto had a significant gain in total SAAR starts in November, due to the multi-family segment more than doubling from the prior month."

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 301,279 units in November, an increase of 26% from 238,366 units in October. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 29% in November to 279,396 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 41% to 221,153 units in November, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 1% to 58,243 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,883 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 December data on January 18 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
			November 2020		November 2021		%		November 2020		November 2021		%		November 2020			November 2021		%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.			53		37		-30		27		3		-89		80			40		-50
P.E.I.			33		42		27		57		49		-14		90			91		1
N.S.			184		165		-10		471		428		-9		655			593		-9
N.B.			105		76		-28		333		334		0		438			410		-6
Atlantic			375		320		-15		888		814		-8		1,263			1,134		-10
Qc			736		787		7		4,400		4,732		8		5,136			5,519		7
Ont.			2,251		2,277		1		5,358		8,800		64		7,609			11,077		46
Man.			172		214		24		778		249		-68		950			463		-51
Sask.			121		90		-26		153		205		34		274			295		8
Alta.			936		1,080		15		1,278		2,334		83		2,214			3,414		54
Prairies			1,229		1,384		13		2,209		2,788		26		3,438			4,172		21
B.C.			656		629		-4		3,226		2,374		-26		3,882			3,003		-23
Canada (10,000+)			5,247		5,397		3		16,081		19,508		21		21,328			24,905		17
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission			26		35		35		7		24		243		33			59		79
Barrie			76		95		25		24		118		392		100			213		113
Belleville			44		24		-45		4		9		125		48			33		-31
Brantford			67		147		119		69		224		225		136			371		173
Calgary			353		451		28		599		1,741		191		952			2,192		130
Edmonton			422		444		5		581		528		-9		1,003			972		-3
Greater Sudbury			16		18		13		18		12		-33		34			30		-12
Guelph			24		22		-8		17		18		6		41			40		-2
Halifax			122		63		-48		401		376		-6		523			439		-16
Hamilton			102		41		-60		129		514		298		231			555		140
Kelowna			48		135		181		66		298		352		114			433		280
Kingston			58		45		-22		58		534		##		116			579		399
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo			96		52		-46		90		218		142		186			270		45
Lethbridge			27		33		22		9		22		144		36			55		53
London			195		151		-23		1,075		130		-88		1,270			281		-78
Moncton			26		16		-38		177		260		47		203			276		36
Montréal			281		256		-9		2,810		2,835		1		3,091			3,091		-
Oshawa			98		58		-41		127		124		-2		225			182		-19
Ottawa-Gatineau			366		362		-1		1,130		1,218		8		1,496			1,580		6
Gatineau			58		67		16		349		127		-64		407			194		-52
Ottawa			308		295		-4		781		1,091		40		1,089			1,386		27
Peterborough			47		33		-30		0		0		-		47			33		-30
Québec			67		81		21		371		748		102		438			829		89
Regina			32		22		-31		85		141		66		117			163		39
Saguenay			27		29		7		24		52		117		51			81		59
St. Catharines-Niagara			113		79		-30		89		145		63		202			224		11
Saint John			34		21		-38		66		0		-100		100			21		-79
St. John's			43		31		-28		27		1		-96		70			32		-54
Saskatoon			80		58		-28		62		55		-11		142			113		-20
Sherbrooke			21		35		67		106		194		83		127			229		80
Thunder Bay			18		11		-39		0		4		##		18			15		-17
Toronto			522		688		32		2,391		5,252		120		2,913			5,940		104
Trois-Rivières			21		26		24		51		114		124		72			140		94
Vancouver			262		224		-15		2,503		1,344		-46		2,765			1,568		-43
Victoria			60		38		-37		171		309		81		231			347		50
Windsor			65		38		-42		167		119		-29		232			157		-32
Winnipeg			134		167		25		540		211		-61		674			378		-44
Total			3,993		4,029		1		14,044		17,892		27		18,037			21,921		22
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
				October 2021		November 2021		%		October 2021		November 2021		%		October 2021	November 2021		%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.				453		342		-25		191		35		-82		644	377		-41
P.E.I.				284		387		36		960		588		-39		1,244	975		-22
N.S.				4,035		1,797		-55		5,237		5,021		-4		9,272	6,818		-26
N.B.				932		686		-26		1,964		3,974		102		2,896	4,660		61
Qc				7,965		8,210		3		44,544		50,793		14		52,509	59,003		12
Ont.				21,682		24,313		12		54,774		99,253		81		76,456	123,566		62
Man.				2,416		2,590		7		1,872		2,988		60		4,288	5,578		30
Sask.				1,248		996		-20		1,104		2,460		123		2,352	3,456		47
Alta.				12,503		11,714		-6		21,676		27,587		27		34,179	39,301		15
B.C.				7,414		7,208		-3		25,030		28,454		14		32,444	35,662		10
Canada (10,000+)				58,932		58,243		-1		157,352		221,153		41		216,284	279,396		29
Canada (All Areas)				74,185		73,301		-1		164,180		227,977		39		238,366	301,279		26
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission				299		382		28		528		288		-45		827	670		-19
Barrie				1,186		848		-28		1,428		1,416		-1		2,614	2,264		-13
Belleville				351		277		-21		168		108		-36		519	385		-26
Brantford				227		1,408		##		60		2,688		##		287	4,096		##
Calgary				5,774		5,041		-13		9,180		20,892		128		14,954	25,933		73
Edmonton				5,384		5,069		-6		12,000		6,336		-47		17,384	11,405		-34
Greater Sudbury				218		152		-30		72		144		100		290	296		2
Guelph				111		235		112		96		216		125		207	451		118
Halifax				3,301		993		-70		4,896		4,512		-8		8,197	5,505		-33
Hamilton				403		340		-16		612		6,168		##		1,015	6,508		##
Kelowna				803		1,149		43		348		3,576		##		1,151	4,725		311
Kingston				414		370		-11		264		6,408		##		678	6,778		##
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo				596		582		-2		6,660		2,616		-61		7,256	3,198		-56
Lethbridge				245		369		51		264		264		-		509	633		24
London				1,915		1,945		2		984		1,560		59		2,899	3,505		21
Moncton				276		151		-45		1,596		3,120		95		1,872	3,271		75
Montréal				2,556		2,584		1		25,650		33,765		32		28,206	36,349		29
Oshawa				1,035		764		-26		3,240		1,488		-54		4,275	2,252		-47
Ottawa-Gatineau				3,578		3,923		10		14,148		14,616		3		17,726	18,539		5
Gatineau				665		840		26		3,036		1,524		-50		3,701	2,364		-36
Ottawa				2,913		3,083		6		11,112		13,092		18		14,025	16,175		15
Peterborough				117		330		182		0		0		-		117	330		182
Québec				905		946		5		7,032		8,976		28		7,937	9,922		25
Regina				579		286		-51		288		1,692		488		867	1,978		128
Saguenay				244		325		33		240		624		160		484	949		96
St. Catharines-Niagara				561		939		67		2,652		1,740		-34		3,213	2,679		-17
Saint John				297		170		-43		96		0		-100		393	170		-57
St. John's				412		279		-32		180		12		-93		592	291		-51
Saskatoon				636		580		-9		660		660		-		1,296	1,240		-4
Sherbrooke				396		457		15		2,712		2,328		-14		3,108	2,785		-10
Thunder Bay				67		116		73		0		48		##		67	164		145
Toronto				6,780		8,034		18		25,260		63,024		150		32,040	71,058		122
Trois-Rivières				325		307		-6		768		1,368		78		1,093	1,675		53
Vancouver				3,008		2,811		-7		18,144		16,128		-11		21,152	18,939		-10
Victoria				754		526		-30		3,204		3,708		16		3,958	4,234		7
Windsor				358		441		23		540		1,428		164		898	1,869		108
Winnipeg				2,061		2,210		7		1,644		2,532		54		3,705	4,742		28
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Media Relations, CMHC, [email protected]