Canada’s October Housing Starts Trend up

Ottawa, November 17, 2020

The trend in housing starts was 222,734 units in October 2020, up from 214,372 units in September 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.

“The national trend in housing starts increased in October following a pause in September,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Higher single-detached SAAR starts in October drove the overall trend higher, offsetting a second consecutive decline in monthly multi-family SAAR starts. Single-detached starts trended higher in several major centres, including Toronto and Montréal.”

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 they are largely driven by the multi-unit segment of the market which can vary significantly from one month to the next.

The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 214,875 units in October, an increase of 3.0% from 208,715 units in September. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 3.5% in October to 202,584 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by a slight 0.2% to 144,796 units in October while single-detached urban starts increased by 14.3% to 57,788 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12,291 units.

Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data are also available in English and French through our website and through CMHC’s Housing Market Information Portal. Our analysts are also available to provide further insight into their respective markets.

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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Information on this release:

Angelina Ritacco
Media Relations, CMHC
416-218-3320
aritacco@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Table 1: Preliminary Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Oct. 2019	Oct. 2020	%	Oct. 2019	Oct. 2020	%	Oct. 2019	Oct. 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	53	49	-8	20	11	-45	73	60	-18
P.E.I.	30	35	17	66	15	-77	96	50	-48
N.S.	159	129	-19	60	51	-15	219	180	-18
N.B.	66	78	18	70	95	36	136	173	27
Atlantic	308	291	-6	216	172	-20	524	463	-12
Qc	512	776	52	4,177	3,543	-15	4,689	4,319	-8
Ont.	1,802	2,364	31	4,614	4,830	5	6,416	7,194	12
Man.	171	213	25	385	508	32	556	721	30
Sask.	105	138	31	104	67	-36	209	205	-2
Alta.	838	836	0	1,097	1,805	65	1,935	2,641	36
Prairies	1,114	1,187	7	1,586	2,380	50	2,700	3,567	32
B.C.	623	562	-10	2,108	1,771	-16	2,731	2,333	-15
Canada (10,000+)	4,359	5,180	19	12,701	12,696	0	17,060	17,876	5
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	25	31	24	169	86	-49	194	117	-40
Barrie	19	52	174	31	264	##	50	316	##
Belleville	44	44	-	2	64	##	46	108	135
Brantford	27	119	341	11	15	36	38	134	253
Calgary	282	316	12	536	666	24	818	982	20
Edmonton	378	396	5	444	1,074	142	822	1,470	79
Greater Sudbury	10	15	50	6	32	433	16	47	194
Guelph	14	26	86	39	99	154	53	125	136
Halifax	94	72	-23	22	35	59	116	107	-8
Hamilton	73	57	-22	637	457	-28	710	514	-28
Kelowna	44	31	-30	277	64	-77	321	95	-70
Kingston	26	35	35	21	36	71	47	71	51
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	84	78	-7	408	173	-58	492	251	-49
Lethbridge	39	30	-23	12	7	-42	51	37	-27
London	115	183	59	128	104	-19	243	287	18
Moncton	13	39	200	26	46	77	39	85	118
Montréal	221	300	36	2,428	1,795	-26	2,649	2,095	-21
Oshawa	44	100	127	37	233	##	81	333	311
Ottawa-Gatineau	327	363	11	869	567	-35	1,196	930	-22
Gatineau	34	98	188	496	84	-83	530	182	-66
Ottawa	293	265	-10	373	483	29	666	748	12
Peterborough	27	52	93	12	25	108	39	77	97
Québec	60	110	83	442	669	51	502	779	55
Regina	32	19	-41	25	24	-4	57	43	-25
Saguenay	20	21	5	93	37	-60	113	58	-49
St. Catharines-Niagara	170	114	-33	114	224	96	284	338	19
Saint John	19	18	-5	20	0	-100	39	18	-54
St. John's	43	41	-5	13	7	-46	56	48	-14
Saskatoon	65	110	69	51	32	-37	116	142	22
Sherbrooke	8	37	363	115	438	281	123	475	286
Thunder Bay	15	20	33	56	4	-93	71	24	-66
Toronto	404	714	77	2,258	2,287	1	2,662	3,001	13
Trois-Rivières	19	16	-16	99	64	-35	118	80	-32
Vancouver	305	263	-14	1,014	1,011	0	1,319	1,274	-3
Victoria	64	49	-23	263	241	-8	327	290	-11
Windsor	59	83	41	21	103	390	80	186	133
Winnipeg	131	186	42	284	390	37	415	576	39
Total	3,320	4,140	25	10,983	11,373	4	14,303	15,513	8

Data based on 2016 Census Definitions.
Source: Market Analysis Centre, CMHC
## not calculable / extreme value

Table 2: Preliminary Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
	Single-Detached			All Others			Total
	Sept. 2020	Oct. 2020	%	Sept. 2020	Oct. 2020	%	Sept. 2020	Oct. 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	371	455	23	72	122	69	443	577	30
P.E.I.	241	314	30	252	180	-29	493	494	0
N.S.	1,647	1,586	-4	4,412	727	-84	6,059	2,313	-62
N.B.	1,209	813	-33	883	1,106	25	2,092	1,919	-8
Qc	7,204	9,000	25	40,245	36,668	-9	47,449	45,668	-4
Ont.	21,719	24,810	14	57,258	56,435	-1	78,977	81,245	3
Man.	2,007	2,328	16	1,284	6,096	375	3,291	8,424	156
Sask.	1,244	1,395	12	312	804	158	1,556	2,199	41
Alta.	8,264	10,076	22	16,395	21,356	30	24,659	31,432	27
B.C.	6,639	7,011	6	24,005	21,302	-11	30,644	28,313	-8
Canada (10,000+)	50,545	57,788	14	145,118	144,796	0	195,663	202,584	4
Canada (All Areas)	58,908	66,037	12	149,808	148,839	-1	208,715	214,875	3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	440	395	-10	636	1,032	62	1,076	1,427	33
Barrie	821	624	-24	72	3,168	##	893	3,792	325
Belleville	422	405	-4	144	768	433	566	1,173	107
Brantford	530	1,612	204	612	180	-71	1,142	1,792	57
Calgary	3,066	3,845	25	8,700	7,992	-8	11,766	11,837	1
Edmonton	3,939	4,523	15	6,420	12,888	101	10,359	17,411	68
Greater Sudbury	98	148	51	96	384	300	194	532	174
Guelph	191	414	117	48	1,188	##	239	1,602	##
Halifax	1,099	868	-21	4,176	420	-90	5,275	1,288	-76
Hamilton	92	673	##	2,616	5,484	110	2,708	6,157	127
Kelowna	457	423	-7	588	768	31	1,045	1,191	14
Kingston	342	532	56	2,244	432	-81	2,586	964	-63
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	977	827	-15	6,780	2,076	-69	7,757	2,903	-63
Lethbridge	320	299	-7	132	84	-36	452	383	-15
London	1,863	2,338	25	2,604	1,248	-52	4,467	3,586	-20
Moncton	370	422	14	360	552	53	730	974	33
Montréal	3,008	3,313	10	29,567	21,489	-27	32,575	24,802	-24
Oshawa	1,117	1,037	-7	2,628	2,796	6	3,745	3,833	2
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,264	3,531	8	14,040	6,804	-52	17,304	10,335	-40
Gatineau	799	1,035	30	3,612	1,008	-72	4,411	2,043	-54
Ottawa	2,465	2,496	1	10,428	5,796	-44	12,893	8,292	-36
Peterborough	122	495	306	72	300	317	194	795	310
Québec	997	1,252	26	7,932	8,028	1	8,929	9,280	4
Regina	413	190	-54	132	288	118	545	478	-12
Saguenay	192	205	7	192	444	131	384	649	69
St. Catharines-Niagara	934	989	6	936	2,688	187	1,870	3,677	97
Saint John	330	208	-37	408	0	-100	738	208	-72
St. John's	283	373	32	48	84	75	331	457	38
Saskatoon	812	1,080	33	108	384	256	920	1,464	59
Sherbrooke	353	394	12	1,920	5,256	174	2,273	5,650	149
Thunder Bay	89	143	61	24	48	100	113	191	69
Toronto	7,370	8,770	19	25,644	27,444	7	33,014	36,214	10
Trois-Rivières	128	182	42	360	768	113	488	950	95
Vancouver	2,765	2,883	4	18,708	12,132	-35	21,473	15,015	-30
Victoria	657	535	-19	1,656	2,892	75	2,313	3,427	48
Windsor	756	876	16	1,596	1,236	-23	2,352	2,112	-10
Winnipeg	1,647	2,266	38	876	4,680	434	2,523	6,946	175