Canadian housing starts trended slightly higher in May

OTTAWA, ON, June 15, 2021 /CNW/ - The trend in housing starts was 280,779 units in May 2021, up slightly from 278,462 units in April 2021, 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 trended slightly higher in May (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 remained elevated in May, registering a slight increase from April," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "In May, higher multi-family SAAR starts offset lower single-detached starts in Canada's urban areas, contributing to the increase in the National trend. However, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal starts trended lower in May, as these markets continued to moderate from the historical highs recorded in the first quarter of the year."

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 275,916 units in May, an increase of 3.2% from 267,449 units in April. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 1.8% in May to 254,647 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 10.9% to 190,530 units in May while single-detached urban starts decreased by 18% to 64,117 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,269 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 the June 2021 data on July 16 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
			May 2020		May 2021		%		May 2020		May 2021			%		May 2020		May 2021		%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.			16		51		219		1		16			##		17		67		294
P.E.I.			17		60		253		72		46			-36		89		106		19
N.S.			110		63		-43		166		609			267		276		672		143
N.B.			56		114		104		225		446			98		281		560		99
Atlantic			199		288		45		464		1,117			141		663		1,405		112
Qc			1,006		985		-2		4,313		4,166			-3		5,319		5,151		-3
Ont.			1,651		2,507		52		3,252		5,439			67		4,903		7,946		62
Man.			141		223		58		181		320			77		322		543		69
Sask.			82		176		115		78		280			259		160		456		185
Alta.			632		1,121		77		940		1,738			85		1,572		2,859		82
Prairies			855		1,520		78		1,199		2,338			95		2,054		3,858		88
B.C.			578		686		19		2,497		2,925			17		3,075		3,611		17
Canada (10,000+)			4,289		5,986		40		11,725		15,985			36		16,014		21,971		37
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission			36		30		-17		14		27			93		50		57		14
Barrie			106		66		-38		10		158			##		116		224		93
Belleville			18		52		189		12		15			25		30		67		123
Brantford			32		45		41		32		57			78		64		102		59
Calgary			262		460		76		459		1,121			144		721		1,581		119
Edmonton			275		508		85		395		552			40		670		1,060		58
Greater Sudbury			2		21		##		2		18			##		4		39		##
Guelph			27		12		-56		0		9			##		27		21		-22
Halifax			84		13		-85		137		554			304		221		567		157
Hamilton			52		29		-44		57		307			439		109		336		208
Kelowna			43		54		26		113		41			-64		156		95		-39
Kingston			12		39		225		200		15			-93		212		54		-75
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo			52		110		112		79		424			437		131		534		308
Lethbridge			11		29		164		6		15			150		17		44		159
London			46		234		409		94		325			246		140		559		299
Moncton			18		43		139		153		263			72		171		306		79
Montréal			406		308		-24		2,502		2,129			-15		2,908		2,437		-16
Oshawa			83		188		127		95		656			##		178		844		374
Ottawa-Gatineau			334		408		22		686		1,310			91		1,020		1,718		68
Gatineau			52		47		-10		275		418			52		327		465		42
Ottawa			282		361		28		411		892			117		693		1,253		81
Peterborough			24		31		29		13		0			-100		37		31		-16
Québec			172		138		-20		842		864			3		1,014		1,002		-1
Regina			11		39		255		31		14			-55		42		53		26
Saguenay			23		42		83		40		30			-25		63		72		14
St. Catharines-Niagara			66		90		36		29		172			493		95		262		176
Saint John			16		25		56		2		7			250		18		32		78
St. John's			11		47		327		0		14			##		11		61		455
Saskatoon			65		128		97		46		259			463		111		387		249
Sherbrooke			36		49		36		114		147			29		150		196		31
Thunder Bay			3		14		367		24		7			-71		27		21		-22
Toronto			530		599		13		2,028		2,057			1		2,558		2,656		4
Trois-Rivières			36		34		-6		121		54			-55		157		88		-44
Vancouver			241		258		7		1,853		2,300			24		2,094		2,558		22
Victoria			55		62		13		205		131			-36		260		193		-26
Windsor			52		69		33		24		167			##		76		236		211
Winnipeg			115		187		63		138		306			122		253		493		95
Total			3,355		4,461		33		10,556		14,525			38		13,911		18,986		36
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
				April 2021		May 2021		%		April 2021		May 2021	%		April 2021		May 2021		%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.				834		610		-27		105		199	90		939		809		-14
P.E.I.				440		562		28		324		552	70		764		1,114		46
N.S.				1,214		865		-29		1,693		7,301	331		2,907		8,166		181
N.B.				2,021		1,342		-34		2,070		5,009	142		4,091		6,351		55
Qc				9,656		8,648		-10		52,579		49,172	-6		62,235		57,820		-7
Ont.				35,280		27,237		-23		66,421		64,920	-2		101,701		92,157		-9
Man.				2,996		2,550		-15		1,992		3,840	93		4,988		6,390		28
Sask.				2,493		2,088		-16		2,460		3,360	37		4,953		5,448		10
Alta.				14,742		12,567		-15		17,201		21,142	23		31,943		33,709		6
B.C.				8,514		7,648		-10		27,028		35,035	30		35,542		42,683		20
Canada (10,000+)				78,190		64,117		-18		171,873		190,530	11		250,063		254,647		2
Canada (All Areas)				90,951		79,955		-12		176,500		195,962	11		267,449		275,916		3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission				269		288		7		384		324	-16		653		612		-6
Barrie				881		642		-27		1,332		1,896	42		2,213		2,538		15
Belleville				492		455		-8		216		180	-17		708		635		-10
Brantford				365		473		30		192		684	256		557		1,157		108
Calgary				6,301		4,914		-22		8,820		13,452	53		15,121		18,366		21
Edmonton				6,607		5,920		-10		7,704		6,624	-14		14,311		12,544		-12
Greater Sudbury				1,008		434		-57		0		216	##		1,008		650		-36
Guelph				500		105		-79		1,188		108	-91		1,688		213		-87
Halifax				498		165		-67		1,056		6,648	##		1,554		6,813		338
Hamilton				2,215		357		-84		4,104		3,684	-10		6,319		4,041		-36
Kelowna				620		578		-7		888		492	-45		1,508		1,070		-29
Kingston				483		465		-4		204		180	-12		687		645		-6
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo				1,173		1,457		24		9,636		5,088	-47		10,809		6,545		-39
Lethbridge				560		442		-21		144		180	25		704		622		-12
London				3,230		2,445		-24		5,736		3,900	-32		8,966		6,345		-29
Moncton				594		486		-18		1,128		3,156	180		1,722		3,642		111
Montréal				3,628		2,605		-28		35,808		25,347	-29		39,436		27,952		-29
Oshawa				2,165		1,820		-16		1,344		7,872	486		3,509		9,692		176
Ottawa-Gatineau				4,987		4,480		-10		14,592		15,720	8		19,579		20,200		3
Gatineau				580		529		-9		6,564		5,016	-24		7,144		5,545		-22
Ottawa				4,407		3,951		-10		8,028		10,704	33		12,435		14,655		18
Peterborough				256		284		11		0		0	-		256		284		11
Québec				1,441		1,131		-22		5,844		10,368	77		7,285		11,499		58
Regina				518		631		22		324		168	-48		842		799		-5
Saguenay				440		375		-15		264		360	36		704		735		4
St. Catharines-Niagara				1,454		1,376		-5		1,128		2,064	83		2,582		3,440		33
Saint John				464		264		-43		576		84	-85		1,040		348		-67
St. John's				773		706		-9		84		168	100		857		874		2
Saskatoon				1,993		1,390		-30		2,088		3,108	49		4,081		4,498		10
Sherbrooke				718		665		-7		2,112		1,764	-16		2,830		2,429		-14
Thunder Bay				715		298		-58		48		84	75		763		382		-50
Toronto				7,445		6,281		-16		26,268		24,684	-6		33,713		30,965		-8
Trois-Rivières				357		221		-38		492		648	32		849		869		2
Vancouver				3,165		3,001		-5		15,960		27,600	73		19,125		30,601		60
Victoria				1,042		675		-35		3,180		1,572	-51		4,222		2,247		-47
Windsor				661		703		6		1,512		2,004	33		2,173		2,707		25
Winnipeg				2,518		2,071		-18		1,848		3,672	99		4,366		5,743		32
Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source:  Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Audrey-Anne Coulombe, Media Relations, CMHC, 613-748-2573, [email protected]

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