Canadian Housing Starts Trend Essentially Unchanged in November

Ottawa, December 9, 2019

The trend in housing starts was 219,047 units in November 2019, compared to 218,253 units in October 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 was essentially unchanged in November, reflecting slight increases in the national trends of both multi-family and single-detached starts" said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. “Vancouver saw a significant decline in the trend of multi-unit starts for a second consecutive month in November, following a period of elevated construction activity earlier in the year. However, this decline was offset by modest gains in the multi-unit trend in most other major markets, including Toronto.”

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 201,318 units in November, a slight increase of 0.3% from 200,674 units in October. The SAAR of urban starts increased by 0.4% in November to 188,559 units. Multiple urban starts increased by 2.3% to 141,753 units in November while single-detached urban starts decreased by 5.1% to 46,806 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12,759 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
	November 2018	November 2019	%	November 2018	November 2019	%	November 2018	November 2019	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.-L.	54	63	17	19	14	-26	73	77	5
P.E.I.	34	16	-53	128	58	-55	162	74	-54
N.S.	136	88	-35	160	165	3	296	253	-15
N.B.	76	95	25	149	267	79	225	362	61
Atlantic	300	262	-13	456	504	11	756	766	1
Qc	584	571	-2	3,372	3,031	-10	3,956	3,602	-9
Ont.	1,816	1,634	-10	5,583	3,879	-31	7,399	5,513	-25
Man.	204	156	-24	531	250	-53	735	406	-45
Sask.	105	122	16	62	34	-45	167	156	-7
Alta.	828	926	12	1,300	1,249	-4	2,128	2,175	2
Prairies	1,137	1,204	6	1,893	1,533	-19	3,030	2,737	-10
B.C.	826	596	-28	2,379	3,390	42	3,205	3,986	24
Canada (10,000+)	4,663	4,267	-8	13,683	12,337	-10	18,346	16,604	-9
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	26	33	27	27	104	285	53	137	158
Barrie	17	26	53	2	260	##	19	286	##
Belleville	35	44	26	20	12	-40	55	56	2
Brantford	23	33	43	109	30	-72	132	63	-52
Calgary	299	378	26	537	576	7	836	954	14
Edmonton	376	391	4	624	549	-12	1,000	940	-6
Greater Sudbury	11	16	45	2	0	-100	13	16	23
Guelph	19	16	-16	76	36	-53	95	52	-45
Halifax	75	49	-35	95	128	35	170	177	4
Hamilton	38	87	129	152	293	93	190	380	100
Kelowna	66	61	-8	305	246	-19	371	307	-17
Kingston	40	34	-15	28	6	-79	68	40	-41
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	68	66	-3	228	351	54	296	417	41
Lethbridge	19	30	58	9	12	33	28	42	50
London	123	109	-11	114	111	-3	237	220	-7
Moncton	25	27	8	110	201	83	135	228	69
Montréal	247	250	1	2,199	1,547	-30	2,446	1,797	-27
Oshawa	85	46	-46	280	102	-64	365	148	-59
Ottawa-Gatineau	262	292	11	584	948	62	846	1,240	47
Gatineau	36	22	-39	231	291	26	267	313	17
Ottawa	226	270	19	353	657	86	579	927	60
Peterborough	25	11	-56	0	2	##	25	13	-48
Québec	94	61	-35	476	595	25	570	656	15
Regina	16	41	156	26	16	-38	42	57	36
Saguenay	16	12	-25	14	47	236	30	59	97
St. Catharines-Niagara	49	117	139	66	154	133	115	271	136
Saint John	24	19	-21	6	2	-67	30	21	-30
St. John's	46	55	20	15	12	-20	61	67	10
Saskatoon	81	76	-6	32	12	-63	113	88	-22
Sherbrooke	19	42	121	138	131	-5	157	173	10
Thunder Bay	9	5	-44	15	0	-100	24	5	-79
Toronto	548	371	-32	3,568	1,666	-53	4,116	2,037	-51
Trois-Rivières	16	16	-	50	45	-10	66	61	-8
Vancouver	418	242	-42	1,436	2,073	44	1,854	2,315	25
Victoria	55	60	9	187	286	53	242	346	43
Windsor	51	44	-14	82	49	-40	133	93	-30
Winnipeg	179	118	-34	426	197	-54	605	315	-48
Total	3,500	3,278	-6	12,038	10,799	-10	15,538	14,077	-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
	October 2019	November 2019	%	October 2019	November 2019	%	October 2019	November 2019	%
Provinces (10,000+)
N.L.	511	574	12	159	147	-8	670	721	8
P.E.I.	300	147	-51	792	696	-12	1,092	843	-23
N.S.	1,794	850	-53	478	1,903	298	2,272	2,753	21
N.B.	803	782	-3	804	3,183	296	1,607	3,965	147
Qc	5,942	6,189	4	41,844	34,049	-19	47,786	40,238	-16
Ont.	19,297	17,959	-7	50,932	43,001	-16	70,229	60,960	-13
Man.	1,937	1,784	-8	4,308	3,000	-30	6,245	4,784	-23
Sask.	1,157	1,322	14	984	408	-59	2,141	1,730	-19
Alta.	10,027	10,645	6	12,835	14,833	16	22,862	25,478	11
B.C.	7,552	6,554	-13	25,441	40,533	59	32,993	47,087	43
Canada (10,000+)	49,320	46,806	-5	138,577	141,753	2	187,897	188,559	0
Canada (All Areas)	58,717	56,344	-4	141,961	144,975	2	200,674	201,318	0
Metropolitan Areas
Abbotsford-Mission	310	388	25	2,028	1,248	-38	2,338	1,636	-30
Barrie	224	262	17	420	3,120	##	644	3,382	425
Belleville	428	533	25	24	144	##	452	677	50
Brantford	484	612	26	132	360	173	616	972	58
Calgary	3,450	4,128	20	6,432	6,912	7	9,882	11,040	12
Edmonton	4,658	4,471	-4	5,328	6,588	24	9,986	11,059	11
Greater Sudbury	112	155	38	72	0	-100	184	155	-16
Guelph	226	220	-3	468	432	-8	694	652	-6
Halifax	1,065	725	-32	264	1,536	482	1,329	2,261	70
Hamilton	987	1,064	8	7,644	3,516	-54	8,631	4,580	-47
Kelowna	542	552	2	3,324	2,952	-11	3,866	3,504	-9
Kingston	486	323	-34	252	72	-71	738	395	-46
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo	852	853	0	4,896	4,212	-14	5,748	5,065	-12
Lethbridge	436	426	-2	144	144	-	580	570	-2
London	1,510	1,200	-21	1,536	1,332	-13	3,046	2,532	-17
Moncton	172	223	30	312	2,412	##	484	2,635	444
Montréal	2,448	2,595	6	29,020	18,285	-37	31,468	20,880	-34
Oshawa	398	511	28	444	1,224	176	842	1,735	106
Ottawa-Gatineau	3,132	3,386	8	10,428	11,376	9	13,560	14,762	9
Gatineau	345	264	-23	5,952	3,492	-41	6,297	3,756	-40
Ottawa	2,787	3,122	12	4,476	7,884	76	7,263	11,006	52
Peterborough	360	185	-49	144	24	-83	504	209	-59
Québec	640	679	6	5,304	7,140	35	5,944	7,819	32
Regina	332	464	40	300	192	-36	632	656	4
Saguenay	197	145	-26	1,116	564	-49	1,313	709	-46
St. Catharines-Niagara	1,664	1,419	-15	1,368	1,848	35	3,032	3,267	8
Saint John	239	161	-33	240	24	-90	479	185	-61
St. John's	429	479	12	156	144	-8	585	623	6
Saskatoon	730	750	3	612	144	-76	1,342	894	-33
Sherbrooke	79	514	##	1,380	1,572	14	1,459	2,086	43
Thunder Bay	125	68	-46	672	0	-100	797	68	-91
Toronto	4,930	3,738	-24	27,180	19,992	-26	32,110	23,730	-26
Trois-Rivières	205	201	-2	1,188	540	-55	1,393	741	-47
Vancouver	3,383	2,812	-17	12,168	24,876	104	15,551	27,688	78
Victoria	732	792	8	3,156	3,432	9	3,888	4,224	9
Windsor	687	546	-21	252	588	133	939	1,134	21
Winnipeg	1,663	1,542	-7	3,408	2,364	-31	5,071	3,906	-23