Canadian housing starts trended higher in November

OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 15, 2020 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 231,491 units in November 2020, up from 222,989 units in October 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 in November increased," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Multi-family SAAR starts partly rebounded in November from two consecutive declines, offsetting a decline in single-detached SAAR starts and driving the overall trend higher. Multi-family starts were particularly strong in Vancouver and Montréal in November."

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 246,033 units in November, an increase of 14.4% from 215,134 units in October. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 15% in November to 233,106 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 22.5% to 177,661 units in November while single-detached urban starts decreased by 3.8% to 55,445 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12,927 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 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 2019	November 2020	%	November 2019	November 2020	%	November 2019	November 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.		67	53	-21	19	30	58	86	83	-3
P.E.I.		16	33	106	58	57	-2	74	90	22
N.S.		113	182	61	198	430	117	311	612	97
N.B.		96	108	13	266	337	27	362	445	23
Atlantic		292	376	29	541	854	58	833	1,230	48
Qc		555	678	22	3,110	4,324	39	3,665	5,002	36
Ont.		1,664	2,208	33	4,175	5,362	28	5,839	7,570	30
Man.		155	162	5	295	683	132	450	845	88
Sask.		125	121	-3	36	156	333	161	277	72
Alta.		946	923	-2	1,262	1,259	0	2,208	2,182	-1
Prairies		1,226	1,206	-2	1,593	2,098	32	2,819	3,304	17
B.C.		586	637	9	3,366	3,122	-7	3,952	3,759	-5
Canada (10,000+)		4,323	5,105	18	12,785	15,760	23	17,108	20,865	22
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		33	26	-21	104	7	-93	137	33	-76
Barrie		26	76	192	260	24	-91	286	100	-65
Belleville		44	44	-	12	4	-67	56	48	-14
Brantford		33	67	103	30	69	130	63	136	116
Calgary		378	353	-7	576	599	4	954	952	0
Edmonton		391	422	8	549	581	6	940	1,003	7
Greater Sudbury		16	16	-	0	18	##	16	34	113
Guelph		16	24	50	36	17	-53	52	41	-21
Halifax		49	122	149	128	401	213	177	523	195
Hamilton		87	102	17	293	129	-56	380	231	-39
Kelowna		61	48	-21	246	66	-73	307	114	-63
Kingston		34	58	71	6	58	##	40	116	190
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		66	96	45	351	90	-74	417	186	-55
Lethbridge		30	27	-10	12	9	-25	42	36	-14
London		109	195	79	111	1,075	##	220	1,270	477
Moncton		27	26	-4	201	177	-12	228	203	-11
Montréal		250	281	12	1,547	2,810	82	1,797	3,091	72
Oshawa		46	98	113	102	127	25	148	225	52
Ottawa-Gatineau		292	366	25	948	1,130	19	1,240	1,496	21
Gatineau		22	58	164	291	349	20	313	407	30
Ottawa		270	308	14	657	781	19	927	1,089	17
Peterborough		11	47	327	2	0	-100	13	47	262
Québec		61	67	10	595	371	-38	656	438	-33
Regina		41	32	-22	16	85	431	57	117	105
Saguenay		12	27	125	47	24	-49	59	51	-14
St. Catharines-Niagara		117	113	-3	154	89	-42	271	202	-25
Saint John		19	34	79	2	66	##	21	100	376
St. John's		55	43	-22	12	27	125	67	70	4
Saskatoon		76	80	5	12	62	417	88	142	61
Sherbrooke		42	21	-50	131	106	-19	173	127	-27
Thunder Bay		5	18	260	0	0	-	5	18	260
Toronto		371	522	41	1,666	2,391	44	2,037	2,913	43
Trois-Rivières		16	21	31	45	51	13	61	72	18
Vancouver		242	262	8	2,073	2,503	21	2,315	2,765	19
Victoria		60	60	-	286	171	-40	346	231	-33
Windsor		44	65	48	49	167	241	93	232	149
Winnipeg		118	134	14	197	540	174	315	674	114
Total		3,278	3,993	22	10,799	14,044	30	14,077	18,037	28
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 2020	November 2020	%	October 2020	November 2020	%	October 2020	November 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.		460	444	-3	123	351	185	583	795	36
P.E.I.		317	308	-3	180	684	280	497	992	100
N.S.		1,613	1,876	16	733	5,007	##	2,346	6,883	193
N.B.		834	820	-2	1,118	3,931	252	1,952	4,751	143
Qc		9,044	7,616	-16	36,663	47,767	30	45,707	55,383	21
Ont.		24,749	24,186	-2	56,689	57,682	2	81,438	81,868	1
Man.		2,347	1,934	-18	6,096	8,196	34	8,443	10,130	20
Sask.		1,400	1,341	-4	804	1,872	133	2,204	3,213	46
Alta.		9,909	10,025	1	21,310	14,793	-31	31,219	24,818	-21
B.C.		6,992	6,895	-1	21,268	37,378	76	28,260	44,273	57
Canada (10,000+)		57,665	55,445	-4	144,984	177,661	23	202,649	233,106	15
Canada (All Areas)		66,083	64,213	-3	149,051	181,821	22	215,134	246,033	14
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission		388	307	-21	1,032	84	-92	1,420	391	-72
Barrie		627	673	7	3,168	288	-91	3,795	961	-75
Belleville		430	478	11	768	48	-94	1,198	526	-56
Brantford		1,590	983	-38	180	828	360	1,770	1,811	2
Calgary		3,749	3,716	-1	7,992	7,188	-10	11,741	10,904	-7
Edmonton		4,562	4,736	4	12,888	6,972	-46	17,450	11,708	-33
Greater Sudbury		151	143	-5	384	216	-44	535	359	-33
Guelph		436	308	-29	1,188	204	-83	1,624	512	-68
Halifax		945	1,316	39	420	4,812	##	1,365	6,128	349
Hamilton		709	957	35	5,484	1,548	-72	6,193	2,505	-60
Kelowna		419	414	-1	768	792	3	1,187	1,206	2
Kingston		542	505	-7	432	696	61	974	1,201	23
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo		826	1,128	37	2,076	1,080	-48	2,902	2,208	-24
Lethbridge		301	333	11	84	108	29	385	441	15
London		2,353	2,263	-4	1,248	12,900	##	3,601	15,163	321
Moncton		407	229	-44	552	2,124	285	959	2,353	145
Montréal		3,299	2,946	-11	21,485	33,354	55	24,784	36,300	46
Oshawa		1,055	1,179	12	2,796	1,524	-45	3,851	2,703	-30
Ottawa-Gatineau		3,597	4,042	12	6,804	13,560	99	10,401	17,602	69
Gatineau		1,020	777	-24	1,008	4,188	315	2,028	4,965	145
Ottawa		2,577	3,265	27	5,796	9,372	62	8,373	12,637	51
Peterborough		537	584	9	300	0	-100	837	584	-30
Québec		1,306	766	-41	8,028	4,452	-45	9,334	5,218	-44
Regina		205	372	81	288	1,020	254	493	1,392	182
Saguenay		211	297	41	444	288	-35	655	585	-11
St. Catharines-Niagara		997	1,242	25	2,688	1,068	-60	3,685	2,310	-37
Saint John		230	253	10	0	792	##	230	1,045	354
St. John's		374	341	-9	84	324	286	458	665	45
Saskatoon		1,152	760	-34	384	744	94	1,536	1,504	-2
Sherbrooke		382	284	-26	5,256	1,272	-76	5,638	1,556	-72
Thunder Bay		154	205	33	48	0	-100	202	205	1
Toronto		8,508	5,930	-30	27,444	28,692	5	35,952	34,622	-4
Trois-Rivières		188	248	32	768	612	-20	956	860	-10
Vancouver		2,868	2,906	1	12,132	30,036	148	15,000	32,942	120
Victoria		541	697	29	2,892	2,052	-29	3,433	2,749	-20
Windsor		881	809	-8	1,236	2,004	62	2,117	2,813	33
Winnipeg		2,334	1,730	-26	4,680	6,480	38	7,014	8,210	17
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

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

Related Links

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