Little Change in September Housing Starts

National Housing Starts trend

The national trend in housing starts was largely unchanged in September at 214,647 units, up from 212,609 units in August 2020. Multi-family starts have been very volatile in recent months, partly reflecting the impact of COVID-19. High levels of multi-family starts in July and August were largely offset by lower levels in September, leaving the trend largely unchanged. This pattern was particularly evident in Ontario, including Toronto. We expect national starts to trend lower by the end of 2020 as a result of the negative impact of COVID-19 on economic and housing indicators.

Standalone Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR)

• The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 208,980 units in September, a decrease of 20.1% from 261,547 units in August.
• The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 21.1% in September to 195,909 units.
• Multiple urban starts decreased by 27% to 146,005 units in September while single-detached urban starts increased by 3.4% to 49,904 units

About Housing Starts

Like many other government organizations, businesses and individuals, we are closely following developments around COVID-19. The monthly release of our Preliminary Housing Starts data will continue as planned. CMHC will report any impact on our ability to collect housing data.

We track housing starts to gain insight into housing supply.

A housing start is defined as the beginning of construction work on the building where the dwelling unit will be located. This can be described in 2 ways:

• usually, the stage when the concrete has been poured for the whole of the footing around the structure; or
• an equivalent stage where a basement will not be part of the structure.

Housing starts data is also available through our Housing Market Information Portal. The portal is updated at the same time as this publication release. The Housing Market Information Portal offers housing starts and other housing market information at a more detailed geographic level.

About SAAR

The time of year can be a factor when collecting data.

We use a rate adjustment to remove the data’s seasonal variations. We then multiply the seasonally adjusted level of starts by 12 to obtain the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of housing starts. The SAAR allows you to compare monthly levels to annual levels for different months of the year. It also gives you a sense of the relative strength of monthly activity.

CMHC uses the 6-month average SAAR with the monthly SAAR of housing starts to obtain a more complete picture of trends in the market. 

Providing information on housing starts is another way CMHC supports you in making decisions on housing affordability and contributes to the stability of housing markets in Canada.

Related links

• Housing Market Information Portal
• Housing Market Outlook
• Housing Market Assessment
• Sign-up to the Housing Research newsletter for research and insight updates.