Canadian housing starts trended higher in December

OTTAWA, ON, Jan. 18, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 239,052 units in December 2020, up from 236,334 units in November 2020. 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 in December 2020," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Following pandemic-induced declines in early-2020, the trend in total housing starts has registered steady gains since May 2020. Despite the on-going pandemic, these gains leave the year-end 2020 SAAR of total starts above the 2019 annual total."

Due to COVID-19, CMHC's monthly Starts and Completions Survey (SCS) for December 2020 was not conducted in the Kelowna CMA. This did not impact the overall trend direction in December. We will resume the SCS in Kelowna for January. We will continue to monitor the situation in each centre and adjust the SCS accordingly.

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 excluding Kelowna CMA decreased by 12.2% in December from November. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 12.8% in December. Multiple urban starts decreased by 15.1% while single-detached urban starts decreased by 5.5%.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 22,373 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 January 2021 data on February 15 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
	December 2019	December 2020	%	December 2019	December 2020	%	December 2019	December 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	42	53	26	24	7	-71	66	60	-9
P.E.I.	19	18	-5	88	11	-88	107	29	-73
N.S.	159	143	-10	358	353	-1	517	496	-4
N.B.	45	77	71	40	434	##	85	511	##
Atlantic	265	291	10	510	805	58	775	1,096	41
Qc	504	583	16	2,674	3,952	48	3,178	4,535	43
Ont.	1,586	1,700	7	3,147	3,989	27	4,733	5,689	20
Man.	136	174	28	226	336	49	362	510	41
Sask.	62	137	121	130	128	-2	192	265	38
Alta.	831	914	10	2,270	1,525	-33	3,101	2,439	-21
Prairies	1,029	1,225	19	2,626	1,989	-24	3,655	3,214	-12
B.C.	490	536	9	2,941	2,714	-8	3,431	3,250	-5
B.C. (excluding Kelowna)	456	536	18	2,895	2,714	-6	3,351	3,250	-3
Canada (10,000+)	3,874	4,335	12	11,898	13,449	13	15,772	17,784	13
Canada (10,000+ excluding Kelowna)	3,840	4,335	13	11,852	13,449	13	15,692	17,784	13
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	30	30	-	180	13	-93	210	43	-80
Barrie	20	34	70	0	6	##	20	40	100
Belleville	39	37	-5	32	14	-56	71	51	-28
Brantford	19	31	63	22	81	268	41	112	173
Calgary	352	402	14	1,778	438	-75	2,130	840	-61
Edmonton	338	377	12	404	1,009	150	742	1,386	87
Greater Sudbury	9	6	-33	2	8	300	11	14	27
Guelph	10	21	110	9	87	##	19	108	468
Halifax	76	75	-1	294	253	-14	370	328	-11
Hamilton	27	45	67	33	281	##	60	326	443
Kelowna	34	--	--	46	--	--	80	--	--
Kingston	40	20	-50	20	37	85	60	57	-5
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	76	63	-17	523	249	-52	599	312	-48
Lethbridge	23	28	22	8	12	50	31	40	29
London	118	153	30	90	76	-16	208	229	10
Moncton	15	18	20	23	335	##	38	353	##
Montréal	160	159	-1	1,391	2,636	90	1,551	2,795	80
Oshawa	62	67	8	217	97	-55	279	164	-41
Ottawa-Gatineau	260	262	1	594	812	37	854	1,074	26
Gatineau	39	59	51	245	248	1	284	307	8
Ottawa	221	203	-8	349	564	62	570	767	35
Peterborough	10	25	150	0	0	-	10	25	150
Québec	60	44	-27	186	397	113	246	441	79
Regina	8	47	488	20	49	145	28	96	243
Saguenay	21	22	5	4	64	##	25	86	244
St. Catharines-Niagara	88	153	74	160	79	-51	248	232	-6
Saint John	3	29	##	0	0	-	3	29	##
St. John's	30	44	47	19	6	-68	49	50	2
Saskatoon	48	83	73	102	74	-27	150	157	5
Sherbrooke	42	53	26	163	103	-37	205	156	-24
Thunder Bay	6	1	-83	0	0	-	6	1	-83
Toronto	407	429	5	1,407	2,159	53	1,814	2,588	43
Trois-Rivières	11	10	-9	36	33	-8	47	43	-9
Vancouver	208	241	16	2,070	1,912	-8	2,278	2,153	-5
Victoria	42	67	60	215	274	27	257	341	33
Windsor	60	59	-2	36	54	50	96	113	18
Winnipeg	106	136	28	181	179	-1	287	315	10
Total	2,858	3,271	14	10,265	11,827	15	13,123	15,098	15
Total (excluding Kelowna)	2,824	3,271	16	10,219	11,827	16	13,043	15,098	16
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value -- data not available

Housing Start Data - Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	November 2020	December 2020	%	November 2020	December 2020	%	November 2020	December 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	449	501	12	316	85	-73	765	586	-23
P.E.I.	303	238	-21	684	132	-81	987	370	-63
N.S.	1,790	1,542	-14	5,492	4,221	-23	7,282	5,763	-21
N.B.	846	862	2	3,883	5,294	36	4,729	6,156	30
Qc	8,033	7,736	-4	47,729	38,249	-20	55,762	45,985	-18
Ont.	24,348	19,900	-18	57,925	48,413	-16	82,273	68,313	-17
Man.	2,059	2,422	18	9,336	4,032	-57	11,395	6,454	-43
Sask.	1,377	1,548	12	1,836	1,536	-16	3,213	3,084	-4
Alta.	10,248	11,125	9	15,051	18,382	22	25,299	29,507	17
B.C.	7,065	7,168	1	38,593	32,520	-16	45,658	39,688	-13
B.C. (excluding Kelowna)	6,654	7,168	8	37,801	32,520	-14	44,455	39,688	-11
Canada (10,000+)	56,518	53,042	-6	180,845	152,864	-15	237,363	205,906	-13
Canada (All Areas)	72,463	68,016	-6	188,688	160,265	-15	261,152	228,279	-13
Canada (10,000+ excluding Kelowna)	56,107	53,042	-5	180,053	152,864	-15	236,160	205,906	-13
Canada (All Areas excluding Kelowna)	72,052	68,016	-6	187,896	160,265	-15	259,949	228,279	-12
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	304	340	12	84	156	86	388	496	28
Barrie	656	502	-23	288	72	-75	944	574	-39
Belleville	484	462	-5	48	168	250	532	630	18
Brantford	1,030	696	-32	828	972	17	1,858	1,668	-10
Calgary	3,789	4,746	25	7,188	5,256	-27	10,977	10,002	-9
Edmonton	4,727	4,759	1	6,972	12,108	74	11,699	16,867	44
Greater Sudbury	141	106	-25	216	96	-56	357	202	-43
Guelph	311	328	5	204	1,044	412	515	1,372	166
Halifax	1,311	901	-31	4,812	3,036	-37	6,123	3,937	-36
Hamilton	956	882	-8	1,548	3,372	118	2,504	4,254	70
Kelowna	411	--	--	792	--	--	1,203	--	--
Kingston	486	251	-48	696	444	-36	1,182	695	-41
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	1,080	700	-35	1,080	2,988	177	2,160	3,688	71
Lethbridge	331	298	-10	108	144	33	439	442	1
London	2,179	1,969	-10	12,900	912	-93	15,079	2,881	-81
Moncton	227	306	35	2,124	4,020	89	2,351	4,326	84
Montréal	2,854	2,382	-17	33,329	31,490	-6	36,183	33,872	-6
Oshawa	1,128	823	-27	1,524	1,164	-24	2,652	1,987	-25
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,940	3,050	-23	13,560	9,744	-28	17,500	12,794	-27
Gatineau	756	598	-21	4,188	2,976	-29	4,944	3,574	-28
Ottawa	3,184	2,452	-23	9,372	6,768	-28	12,556	9,220	-27
Peterborough	552	334	-39	0	0	-	552	334	-39
Québec	757	633	-16	4,452	4,764	7	5,209	5,397	4
Regina	441	510	16	1,020	588	-42	1,461	1,098	-25
Saguenay	298	247	-17	288	768	167	586	1,015	73
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,292	1,669	29	1,068	948	-11	2,360	2,617	11
Saint John	259	336	30	792	0	-100	1,051	336	-68
St. John's	344	408	19	324	72	-78	668	480	-28
Saskatoon	773	930	20	744	888	19	1,517	1,818	20
Sherbrooke	286	509	78	1,272	1,236	-3	1,558	1,745	12
Thunder Bay	255	20	-92	0	0	-	255	20	-92
Toronto	5,743	5,140	-10	28,692	25,908	-10	34,435	31,048	-10
Trois-Rivières	241	158	-34	612	396	-35	853	554	-35
Vancouver	3,016	3,243	8	30,036	22,944	-24	33,052	26,187	-21
Victoria	706	1,042	48	2,052	3,288	60	2,758	4,330	57
Windsor	813	746	-8	2,004	648	-68	2,817	1,394	-51
Winnipeg	1,755	1,930	10	6,480	2,148	-67	8,235	4,078	-50
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value -- data not available

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

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

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