Canadian Housing Starts Fall in March

On Friday, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported that the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of housing starts fell 6.0% in March to 235,852 units, compared with 250,961 in February.

Year-over-year, actual housing starts in centers with populations of 10,000 or greater increased 10.0% to 16,398 units in March, up from 14,935 a year earlier. The year-to-date total reached 49,206 units, up 9.0% from the same period last year, driven by higher starts in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.

The six-month trend in housing starts declined 2.9% to 248,378 units in March. The “trend” measure is a six-month moving average of the SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada.

Among major CMAs, Montreal recorded a 26.0% year-over-year increase in actual starts in March, driven by multi-unit construction. Vancouver posted a 21.0% gain due to higher multi-unit and single-detached starts, while Toronto rose 23% on increased multi-unit activity.

In remarks accompanying the report, CMHC Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of Housing Insight Mathieu Laberge said:

“March housing starts data point to a continued loss of momentum in housing construction, broadly in line with CMHC’s housing market outlook. While actual starts increased compared to a year ago, this largely reflects the exceptionally low level of construction activity in the first quarter of last year. Monthly housing starts can be volatile and difficult to reconcile with conditions experienced by builders and developers on the ground. This is why we are providing new analysis this month on the relationship between building permits and housing starts, as well as the release of new data on non-market housing starts.”