Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction Data Tables

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Housing starts are an economic indicator that reflect the number of residential housing projects that have been started over a specific length of time. These data are divided into 3 types: single-family houses, townhouses or small condos and apartment buildings with 5 or more units.

August monthly housing starts key highlights

The trend in housing starts was 248,480 units in August 2024, down 2.9% from 255,794 units in July.
The trend measure is a 6-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of total housing starts for all areas in Canada.
Actual year-to-date housing starts between January and August 2024 are up 39% in Montréal, showing some recovery from historically low new home construction in 2023.
Vancouver actual starts are down 20% in 2024 compared to 2023, but it’s important to note 2023 was a record year.
In Toronto actual year-to-date housing starts are down 14% from 2023, which was also a high year for housing starts by historical standards.

August Standalone Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR)

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of total urban housing starts in centers with populations of 10,000 or more was 24% lower at 199,478 units.
Multi-unit urban starts decreased 29%, to 154,290 units.
Single-detached urban starts increased by 3%, totaling 45,188 units.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,927 units.

Geography: Edition:

Author:: CMHC
Document Type:: Excel
Date Published:: September 17, 2024

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Our Monthly Housing Starts and Other Construction data tables are issued on the 11^th working day of the month. Exact release dates can be found in our Reports Calendar.

You can also view this data on our Housing Market Information Portal.

About Monthly Housing Starts and Construction Data

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:

The stage when the concrete has been poured for the whole of the footing around the structure.
An equivalent stage where a basement will not be part of the structure.

Housing starts statistics are organized to facilitate an analysis of monthly, quarterly and year-over-year changes. Actual and seasonally-adjusted housing starts data are presented separately. Select under construction and absorption data are also included.

Housing starts, construction and absorption data are used to gain insight into the level of activity and supply conditions in the new home market.

Actual and seasonally adjusted housing starts data are presented separately by region, province, Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and dwelling type. Select data on under construction and absorption are also included.

These monthly housing data tables reflect:

current statistics
new home starts
construction activity

Data source: CMHC Starts and Completions Survey and Market Absorption Survey.

About the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR)

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.

The time of year can be a factor when collecting data. We calculate the SAAR by:

Using a rate adjustment to remove the data’s seasonal variations.
Multiplying the seasonally adjusted level of starts by 12 to obtain the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of housing starts.