Canadian Housing Starts Declined in February

Ottawa, March 9, 2020

The trend in housing starts was 208,525 units in February 2020, compared to 211,153 units in January 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 declined in February, driven by lower-trending multi-unit starts.” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Single and multi-unit starts in Toronto both trended lower, while activity in Montréal declined due to lower-trending multi-unit starts. This offset a slight up-tick in Vancouver, which follows four consecutive declines in that CMA.”

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 210,069 units in February, a decrease of 1.9% from 214,031 units in January. The SAAR of urban starts also decreased by 1.9% in February to 199,304 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 6.1% to 146,072 units in February while single-detached urban starts increased by 11.9% to 53,232 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10,765 units.

Preliminary Housing Starts 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.

For more information, follow us on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

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
	February 2019	February 2020	%	February 2019	February 2020	%	February 2019	February 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	7	6	-14	9	9	-	16	15	-6
P.E.I.	6	7	17	0	68	##	6	75	##
N.S.	43	95	121	190	459	142	233	554	138
N.B.	7	13	86	0	33	##	7	46	##
Atlantic	63	121	92	199	569	186	262	690	163
Qc	181	243	34	1,690	2,206	31	1,871	2,449	31
Ont.	670	1,084	62	2,763	4,269	55	3,433	5,353	56
Man.	134	172	28	241	170	-29	375	342	-9
Sask.	47	60	28	28	68	143	75	128	71
Alta.	513	713	39	888	732	-18	1,401	1,445	3
Prairies	694	945	36	1,157	970	-16	1,851	1,915	3
B.C.	418	444	6	2,430	2,572	6	2,848	3,016	6
Canada (10,000+)	2,026	2,837	40	8,239	10,586	28	10,265	13,423	31
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	19	15	-21	100	207	107	119	222	87
Barrie	3	70	##	72	0	-100	75	70	-7
Belleville	5	13	160	0	2	##	5	15	200
Brantford	14	26	86	14	4	-71	28	30	7
Calgary	207	298	44	395	348	-12	602	646	7
Edmonton	221	324	47	383	296	-23	604	620	3
Greater Sudbury	0	0	-	0	0	-	0	0	-
Guelph	6	1	-83	170	10	-94	176	11	-94
Halifax	30	62	107	181	373	106	211	435	106
Hamilton	25	28	12	123	549	346	148	577	290
Kelowna	15	40	167	8	276	##	23	316	##
Kingston	2	15	##	0	0	-	2	15	##
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	63	63	-	24	241	##	87	304	249
Lethbridge	8	15	88	44	12	-73	52	27	-48
London	50	112	124	23	84	265	73	196	168
Moncton	2	6	200	0	0	-	2	6	200
Montréal	90	113	26	1,000	1,330	33	1,090	1,443	32
Oshawa	12	48	300	19	140	##	31	188	##
Ottawa-Gatineau	87	176	102	727	1,002	38	814	1,178	45
Gatineau	8	23	188	122	370	203	130	393	202
Ottawa	79	153	94	605	632	4	684	785	15
Peterborough	3	3	-	0	0	-	3	3	-
Québec	24	42	75	83	132	59	107	174	63
Regina	18	24	33	9	42	367	27	66	144
Saguenay	2	1	-50	14	20	43	16	21	31
St. Catharines-Niagara	53	88	66	106	108	2	159	196	23
Saint John	1	4	300	0	33	##	1	37	##
St. John's	5	5	-	9	8	-11	14	13	-7
Saskatoon	27	33	22	15	24	60	42	57	36
Sherbrooke	8	8	-	291	36	-88	299	44	-85
Thunder Bay	1	0	-100	0	0	-	1	0	-100
Toronto	183	230	26	1,403	2,176	55	1,586	2,406	52
Trois-Rivières	0	1	##	30	36	20	30	37	23
Vancouver	208	210	1	1,791	1,420	-21	1,999	1,630	-18
Victoria	39	68	74	299	414	38	338	482	43
Windsor	13	42	223	42	23	-45	55	65	18
Winnipeg	112	155	38	192	159	-17	304	314	3
Total	1,556	2,339	50	7,567	9,505	26	9,123	11,844	30

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
	January 2020	February 2020	%	January 2020	February 2020	%	January 2020	February 2020	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	358	313	-13	133	357	168	491	670	36
P.E.I.	201	311	55	228	816	258	429	1,127	163
N.S.	1,575	1,962	25	803	5,809	##	2,378	7,771	227
N.B.	608	860	41	1,136	412	-64	1,744	1,272	-27
Qc	6,875	7,658	11	66,429	37,333	-44	73,304	44,991	-39
Ont.	18,706	20,782	11	50,537	58,186	15	69,243	78,968	14
Man.	2,204	2,554	16	4,512	2,040	-55	6,716	4,594	-32
Sask.	1,086	1,150	6	2,184	816	-63	3,270	1,966	-40
Alta.	10,132	10,444	3	10,952	9,215	-16	21,084	19,659	-7
B.C.	5,831	7,198	23	18,730	31,088	66	24,561	38,286	56
Canada (10,000+)	47,576	53,232	12	155,644	146,072	-6	203,220	199,304	-2
Canada (All Areas)	55,463	61,135	10	158,571	148,934	-6	214,031	210,069	-2
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	214	243	14	2,784	2,484	-11	2,998	2,727	-9
Barrie	359	3,413	##	48	0	-100	407	3,413	##
Belleville	726	757	4	1,380	24	-98	2,106	781	-63
Brantford	453	517	14	120	48	-60	573	565	-1
Calgary	3,892	4,341	12	4,596	4,176	-9	8,488	8,517	0
Edmonton	4,740	4,730	0	4,692	3,552	-24	9,432	8,282	-12
Greater Sudbury	7	135	##	0	0	-	7	135	##
Guelph	151	13	-91	516	120	-77	667	133	-80
Halifax	995	1,324	33	324	4,476	##	1,319	5,800	340
Hamilton	522	473	-9	1,212	6,588	444	1,734	7,061	307
Kelowna	317	571	80	1,272	3,312	160	1,589	3,883	144
Kingston	202	488	142	72	0	-100	274	488	78
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	667	725	9	4,068	2,892	-29	4,735	3,617	-24
Lethbridge	248	197	-21	60	144	140	308	341	11
London	2,063	1,918	-7	3,060	1,008	-67	5,123	2,926	-43
Moncton	99	407	311	120	0	-100	219	407	86
Montréal	3,021	2,837	-6	25,778	16,942	-34	28,799	19,779	-31
Oshawa	564	784	39	312	1,680	438	876	2,464	181
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,162	4,987	58	5,892	12,024	104	9,054	17,011	88
Gatineau	424	530	25	2,676	4,440	66	3,100	4,970	60
Ottawa	2,738	4,457	63	3,216	7,584	136	5,954	12,041	102
Peterborough	103	121	17	0	0	-	103	121	17
Québec	930	927	0	3,696	1,584	-57	4,626	2,511	-46
Regina	362	335	-7	492	504	2	854	839	-2
Saguenay	361	73	-80	756	240	-68	1,117	313	-72
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,002	1,226	22	1,116	1,296	16	2,118	2,522	19
Saint John	108	301	179	312	396	27	420	697	66
St. John's	275	261	-5	120	96	-20	395	357	-10
Saskatoon	594	697	17	1,656	288	-83	2,250	985	-56
Sherbrooke	515	459	-11	2,184	432	-80	2,699	891	-67
Thunder Bay	92	115	25	0	0	-	92	115	25
Toronto	6,656	4,749	-29	25,344	26,112	3	32,000	30,861	-4
Trois-Rivières	212	122	-42	144	432	200	356	554	56
Vancouver	2,792	3,533	27	10,380	17,040	64	13,172	20,573	56
Victoria	516	929	80	156	4,968	##	672	5,897	##
Windsor	204	861	322	60	276	360	264	1,137	331
Winnipeg	1,895	2,191	16	4,284	1,908	-55	6,179	4,099	-34