Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said the trend in housing starts posted a decline in March
Housing starts in Canada set a slower annual pace in March than in the previous month, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has revealed.
The government body said the trend in housing starts was just over 252,000 units last month compared with 253,296 in February, with its chief economist Bob Dugan attributing a decline in urban areas to lower multi-unit starts.
In a statement accompanying the news, Dugan noted that among the country’s three largest markets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, the latter was the only to record growth in total seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) starts.
Still, he also emphasized that the level of housing starts activity across the country remained “historically high,” having remained above 200,000 units since June 2020.
CMHC’s trend measure is based on a six-month moving average of Canada’s monthly SAAR of housing starts. For all areas across the country, the standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts totalled 246,243 units (down 2% from February) with the SAAR of total urban starts also falling by 2% in March, to under 221,000 units.
Multi-unit urban starts posted a 5% decrease to 154,876 units while single-detached urban starts rose by 8%, coming in at just under 66,000 units.
