News
CMHC releases March 2013 housing starts data

April 9, 2013, Ottawa, Ont. —
Housing starts in Canada were trending at 189,742 units in March,
according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a
six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)¹
of housing starts.

April 9, 2013, Ottawa, Ont. —
Housing starts in Canada were trending at 189,742 units in March,
according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a
six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)¹
of housing starts.

“As
expected, the trend in total housing starts continued to moderate in March.
Builders are adjusting to lower housing demand and as a result, completed and
unoccupied units per capita remain relatively close to their historical
average,” said Mathieu Laberge, Deputy Chief Economist at CMHC.

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 the state of the housing market. In some situations, analyzing only
SAAR data can be misleading in some markets, as they are largely driven by the
multiples segment of the markets, which can be quite volatile from one month to
the next.

The
standalone monthly SAAR was 184,028 units in March, up slightly from
183,207 in February. The SAAR of urban starts decreased by 2.7 per cent in
March to 157,217 units, led by a 6.6 per cent decline in single urban
starts to 60,558 units. Multiple urban starts remained relatively unchanged at
96,659 units in March.

March’s
seasonally adjusted annual rates of urban starts decreased in Ontario
(-15.7 per cent) and Quebec (-13.5 per cent). Urban starts increased
in Atlantic Canada (27.1 per cent), the Prairies (13.8 per cent), and
British Columbia (13.1 per cent).

Rural
starts² were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
26,811 units in March.

Preliminary
housing starts data is also available in English and French at the following
link: Preliminary
Housing Starts Tables.