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February Housing Starts Decline in Canada

Ottawa, March 15, 2021

The trend in housing starts was 242,777 units in February 2021, down from 244,963 units in January 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.

“The national trend in housing starts declined in February, but remained elevated,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Single-detached SAAR starts declined in February following strong growth in January, particularly in Montreal. Multi-family SAAR starts also declined in several centres in February, further contributing to the decline in the overall trend.”

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 245,922 units in February, a decrease of 13.5% from 284,372 units in January. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 14% in February to 231,042 units. Multiple urban starts decreased by 15.8% to 163,757 units in February while single-detached urban starts decreased by 9.3% to 67,285 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14,880 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 March 2021 data on April 19 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.

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

Information on this release:

Audrey-Anne Coulombe
Media Relations, CMHC
613-748-2573
acoulomb@cmhc-schl.gc.ca

Table 1: Housing Start Data in Centres 10,000 Population and Over 
Single-Detached All Others Total
Feb. 2020 Feb. 2021 % Feb. 2020 Feb. 2021 % Feb. 2020 Feb. 2021 %
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L. 6 8 33 9 0 -100 15 8 -47
P.E.I. 7 6 -14 68 10 -85 75 16 -79
N.S. 95 90 -5 474 173 -64 569 263 -54
N.B. 14 15 7 34 50 47 48 65 35
Atlantic 122 119 -2 585 233 -60 707 352 -50
Qc 262 382 46 2,248 3,602 60 2,510 3,984 59
Ont. 1,083 1,560 44 4,078 3,542 -13 5,161 5,102 -1
Man. 171 173 1 159 310 95 330 483 46
Sask. 60 93 55 69 119 72 129 212 64
Alta. 691 838 21 688 1,015 48 1,379 1,853 34
Prairies 922 1,104 20 916 1,444 58 1,838 2,548 39
B.C. 452 570 26 2,564 2,706 6 3,016 3,276 9
Canada (10,000+) 2,841 3,735 31 10,391 11,527 11 13,232 15,262 15
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission 15 28 87 207 131 -37 222 159 -28
Barrie 70 33 -53 0 4 ## 70 37 -47
Belleville 13 14 8 2 2 - 15 16 7
Brantford 26 33 27 4 58 ## 30 91 203
Calgary 298 343 15 348 299 -14 646 642 -1
Edmonton 324 409 26 296 558 89 620 967 56
Greater Sudbury 0 0 - 0 2 ## 0 2 ##
Guelph 1 11 ## 10 55 450 11 66 ##
Halifax 62 70 13 373 143 -62 435 213 -51
Hamilton 28 28 - 549 623 13 577 651 13
Kelowna 40 92 130 276 163 -41 316 255 -19
Kingston 15 20 33 0 5 ## 15 25 67
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo 63 70 11 241 32 -87 304 102 -66
Lethbridge 15 23 53 12 111 ## 27 134 396
London 112 194 73 84 520 ## 196 714 264
Moncton 6 7 17 0 2 ## 6 9 50
Montréal 113 130 15 1,330 2,929 120 1,443 3,059 112
Oshawa 48 166 246 140 176 26 188 342 82
Ottawa-Gatineau 176 227 29 1,002 527 -47 1,178 754 -36
Gatineau 23 17 -26 370 79 -79 393 96 -76
Ottawa 153 210 37 632 448 -29 785 658 -16
Peterborough 3 10 233 0 131 ## 3 141 ##
Québec 42 94 124 132 142 8 174 236 36
Regina 24 17 -29 42 86 105 66 103 56
Saguenay 1 3 200 20 4 -80 21 7 -67
St. Catharines-Niagara 88 59 -33 108 93 -14 196 152 -22
Saint John 4 5 25 33 0 -100 37 5 -86
St. John's 5 8 60 8 0 -100 13 8 -38
Saskatoon 33 73 121 24 29 21 57 102 79
Sherbrooke 8 40 400 36 140 289 44 180 309
Thunder Bay 0 0 - 0 0 - 0 0 -
Toronto 230 456 98 2,176 1,149 -47 2,406 1,605 -33
Trois-Rivières 1 4 300 36 11 -69 37 15 -59
Vancouver 210 206 -2 1,420 2,011 42 1,630 2,217 36
Victoria 68 74 9 414 83 -80 482 157 -67
Windsor 42 32 -24 23 31 35 65 63 -3
Winnipeg 155 152 -2 159 299 88 314 451 44
Total 2,339 3,131 34 9,505 10,549 11 11,844 13,680 16

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

Table 2: Housing Start Data — Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates (SAAR)
Single-Detached All Others Total
Jan. 2021 Feb. 2021 % Jan. 2021 Feb. 2021 % Jan. 2021 Feb. 2021 %
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L. 520 443 -15 109 3 -97 629 446 -29
P.E.I. 890 251 -72 192 120 -38 1,082 371 -66
N.S. 1,831 1,782 -3 3,942 2,366 -40 5,773 4,148 -28
N.B. 1,102 963 -13 1,658 972 -41 2,760 1,935 -30
Qc 19,486 10,486 -46 76,525 62,491 -18 96,011 72,977 -24
Ont. 25,025 28,397 13 63,156 47,529 -25 88,181 75,926 -14
Man. 1,848 2,572 39 6,408 3,720 -42 8,256 6,292 -24
Sask. 1,321 1,689 28 3,036 1,428 -53 4,357 3,117 -28
Alta. 12,017 11,970 0 16,024 12,611 -21 28,041 24,581 -12
B.C. 10,151 8,732 -14 23,473 32,517 39 33,624 41,249 23
Canada (10,000+) 74,191 67,285 -9 194,523 163,757 -16 268,714 231,042 -14
Canada (All Areas) 84,652 77,342 -9 199,721 168,579 -16 284,372 245,922 -14
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission 367 452 23 636 1,572 147 1,003 2,024 102
Barrie 789 864 10 2,652 48 -98 3,441 912 -73
Belleville 162 672 315 168 24 -86 330 696 111
Brantford 477 625 31 1,800 696 -61 2,277 1,321 -42
Calgary 4,846 4,693 -3 9,336 3,588 -62 14,182 8,281 -42
Edmonton 5,856 5,885 0 5,196 6,696 29 11,052 12,581 14
Greater Sudbury 553 134 -76 0 24 ## 553 158 -71
Guelph 305 208 -32 24 660 ## 329 868 164
Halifax 1,254 1,373 9 3,492 1,716 -51 4,746 3,089 -35
Hamilton 1,086 553 -49 1,392 7,476 437 2,478 8,029 224
Kelowna 918 1,045 14 372 1,956 426 1,290 3,001 133
Kingston 245 533 118 1,272 60 -95 1,517 593 -61
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo 976 846 -13 9,348 384 -96 10,324 1,230 -88
Lethbridge 359 335 -7 96 1,332 ## 455 1,667 266
London 3,553 3,314 -7 408 6,240 ## 3,961 9,554 141
Moncton 237 351 48 1,176 24 -98 1,413 375 -73
Montréal 8,078 3,077 -62 29,412 36,769 25 37,490 39,846 6
Oshawa 1,901 2,317 22 396 2,112 433 2,297 4,429 93
Ottawa-Gatineau 5,572 5,506 -1 5,316 6,324 19 10,888 11,830 9
Gatineau 1,796 623 -65 1,500 948 -37 3,296 1,571 -52
Ottawa 3,776 4,883 29 3,816 5,376 41 7,592 10,259 35
Peterborough 505 452 -10 0 1,572 ## 505 2,024 301
Québec 2,585 1,992 -23 10,992 1,704 -84 13,577 3,696 -73
Regina 253 227 -10 360 1,032 187 613 1,259 105
Saguenay 1,434 222 -85 360 48 -87 1,794 270 -85
St. Catharines-Niagara 1,042 894 -14 1,356 1,116 -18 2,398 2,010 -16
Saint John 381 341 -10 24 0 -100 405 341 -16
St. John's 448 418 -7 96 0 -100 544 418 -23
Saskatoon 1,030 1,465 42 2,568 348 -86 3,598 1,813 -50
Sherbrooke 1,337 1,828 37 984 1,680 71 2,321 3,508 51
Thunder Bay 95 105 11 0 0 - 95 105 11
Toronto 6,089 10,622 74 30,876 13,788 -55 36,965 24,410 -34
Trois-Rivières 321 353 10 348 132 -62 669 485 -28
Vancouver 3,597 3,622 1 14,196 24,132 70 17,793 27,754 56
Victoria 1,088 1,079 -1 1,716 996 -42 2,804 2,075 -26
Windsor 550 604 10 1,380 372 -73 1,930 976 -49
Winnipeg 1,515 2,085 38 6,180 3,588 -42 7,695 5,673 -26

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

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