Canadian Housing Starts Trended Lower in December

Ottawa, January 9, 2020

The trend in housing starts was 212,160 units in December 2019, compared to 219,921 units in November 2019, 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 decreased in December,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “The declines are primarily led by lower-trending multi-family starts in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. However, the stable starts at year-end in Vancouver and significant growth in Calgary helped to partially offset the declines in other major centres.”

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 197,329 units in December, a decrease of 3% from 204,320 units in November. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 4% in December to 185,934 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 5% to 138,049 units in December while single-detached urban starts increased by 1% to 47,885 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 11,395 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.

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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
	December 2018	December 2019	%	December 2018	December 2019	%	December 2018	December 2019	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	39	42	8	18	24	33	57	66	16
P.E.I.	24	19	-21	76	88	16	100	107	7
N.S.	126	159	26	269	358	33	395	517	31
N.B.	52	45	-13	123	40	-67	175	85	-51
Atlantic	241	265	10	486	510	5	727	775	7
Qc	472	504	7	4,152	2,674	-36	4,624	3,178	-31
Ont.	1,657	1,586	-4	3,992	3,147	-21	5,649	4,733	-16
Man.	144	136	-6	297	226	-24	441	362	-18
Sask.	104	62	-40	37	130	251	141	192	36
Alta.	697	831	19	734	2,270	209	1,431	3,101	117
Prairies	945	1,029	9	1,068	2,626	146	2,013	3,655	82
B.C.	725	490	-32	3,216	2,941	-9	3,941	3,431	-13
Canada (10,000+)	4,040	3,874	-4	12,914	11,898	-8	16,954	15,772	-7
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	33	30	-9	258	180	-30	291	210	-28
Barrie	13	20	54	0	0	-	13	20	54
Belleville	27	39	44	4	32	##	31	71	129
Brantford	10	19	90	62	22	-65	72	41	-43
Calgary	223	352	58	307	1,778	479	530	2,130	302
Edmonton	332	338	2	306	404	32	638	742	16
Greater Sudbury	8	9	13	4	2	-50	12	11	-8
Guelph	14	10	-29	153	9	-94	167	19	-89
Halifax	63	76	21	237	294	24	300	370	23
Hamilton	15	27	80	119	33	-72	134	60	-55
Kelowna	65	34	-48	219	46	-79	284	80	-72
Kingston	25	40	60	213	20	-91	238	60	-75
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	79	76	-4	75	523	##	154	599	289
Lethbridge	33	23	-30	12	8	-33	45	31	-31
London	103	118	15	33	90	173	136	208	53
Moncton	9	15	67	105	23	-78	114	38	-67
Montréal	165	160	-3	2,741	1,391	-49	2,906	1,551	-47
Oshawa	63	62	-2	54	217	302	117	279	138
Ottawa-Gatineau	260	260	-	298	594	99	558	854	53
Gatineau	51	39	-24	40	245	##	91	284	212
Ottawa	209	221	6	258	349	35	467	570	22
Peterborough	23	10	-57	13	0	-100	36	10	-72
Québec	29	60	107	652	186	-71	681	246	-64
Regina	24	8	-67	17	20	18	41	28	-32
Saguenay	13	21	62	31	4	-87	44	25	-43
St. Catharines-Niagara	66	88	33	145	160	10	211	248	18
Saint John	21	3	-86	1	0	-100	22	3	-86
St. John's	30	30	-	15	19	27	45	49	9
Saskatoon	74	48	-35	14	102	##	88	150	70
Sherbrooke	25	42	68	41	163	298	66	205	211
Thunder Bay	6	6	-	0	0	-	6	6	-
Toronto	540	407	-25	2,654	1,407	-47	3,194	1,814	-43
Trois-Rivières	16	11	-31	82	36	-56	98	47	-52
Vancouver	375	208	-45	1,637	2,070	26	2,012	2,278	13
Victoria	43	42	-2	732	215	-71	775	257	-67
Windsor	45	60	33	8	36	350	53	96	81
Winnipeg	119	106	-11	210	181	-14	329	287	-13
Total	2,989	2,858	-4	11,452	10,265	-10	14,441	13,123	-9

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
	November 2019	December 2019	%	November 2019	December 2019	%	November 2019	December 2019	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	597	432	-28	199	292	47	796	724	-9
P.E.I.	150	266	77	696	1,056	52	846	1,322	56
N.S.	1,144	1,697	48	2,277	4,271	88	3,421	5,968	74
N.B.	778	626	-20	3,182	549	-83	3,960	1,175	-70
Qc	6,105	6,412	5	34,114	26,775	-22	40,219	33,187	-17
Ont.	18,205	18,504	2	46,019	38,094	-17	64,224	56,598	-12
Man.	1,786	1,953	9	3,540	2,712	-23	5,326	4,665	-12
Sask.	1,393	792	-43	432	1,560	261	1,825	2,352	29
Alta.	10,821	10,684	-1	15,058	27,592	83	25,879	38,276	48
B.C.	6,384	6,519	2	40,263	35,148	-13	46,647	41,667	-11
Canada (10,000+)	47,363	47,885	1	145,780	138,049	-5	193,143	185,934	-4
Canada (All Areas)	55,693	56,323	1	148,626	141,005	-5	204,320	197,329	-3
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	388	357	-8	1,248	2,160	73	1,636	2,517	54
Barrie	259	320	24	3,120	0	-100	3,379	320	-91
Belleville	527	493	-6	144	384	167	671	877	31
Brantford	561	416	-26	360	264	-27	921	680	-26
Calgary	4,192	4,621	10	6,912	21,336	209	11,104	25,957	134
Edmonton	4,418	4,198	-5	6,588	4,848	-26	11,006	9,046	-18
Greater Sudbury	153	147	-4	0	24	##	153	171	12
Guelph	213	142	-33	432	108	-75	645	250	-61
Halifax	703	787	12	1,536	3,528	130	2,239	4,315	93
Hamilton	918	445	-52	3,516	396	-89	4,434	841	-81
Kelowna	540	356	-34	2,952	552	-81	3,492	908	-74
Kingston	325	490	51	72	240	233	397	730	84
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	848	849	0	4,212	6,276	49	5,060	7,125	41
Lethbridge	409	250	-39	144	96	-33	553	346	-37
London	1,206	1,499	24	1,332	1,080	-19	2,538	2,579	2
Moncton	225	253	12	2,412	276	-89	2,637	529	-80
Montréal	2,553	2,281	-11	18,277	16,520	-10	20,830	18,801	-10
Oshawa	543	713	31	1,224	2,604	113	1,767	3,317	88
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,296	2,763	-16	11,376	7,128	-37	14,672	9,891	-33
Gatineau	269	358	33	3,492	2,940	-16	3,761	3,298	-12
Ottawa	3,027	2,405	-21	7,884	4,188	-47	10,911	6,593	-40
Peterborough	177	122	-31	24	0	-100	201	122	-39
Québec	640	843	32	7,140	2,232	-69	7,780	3,075	-60
Regina	540	108	-80	192	240	25	732	348	-52
Saguenay	149	248	66	564	48	-91	713	296	-58
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,369	1,094	-20	1,848	1,920	4	3,217	3,014	-6
Saint John	160	44	-73	24	0	-100	184	44	-76
St. John's	470	301	-36	144	228	58	614	529	-14
Saskatoon	744	552	-26	144	1,224	##	888	1,776	100
Sherbrooke	519	541	4	1,572	1,956	24	2,091	2,497	19
Thunder Bay	65	147	126	0	0	-	65	147	126
Toronto	3,764	4,022	7	19,992	16,884	-16	23,756	20,906	-12
Trois-Rivières	198	145	-27	540	432	-20	738	577	-22
Vancouver	2,725	2,812	3	24,876	24,840	0	27,601	27,652	0
Victoria	787	683	-13	3,432	2,580	-25	4,219	3,263	-23
Windsor	552	809	47	588	432	-27	1,140	1,241	9
Winnipeg	1,546	1,604	4	2,364	2,172	-8	3,910	3,776	-3