March 9, 2015 – Canadian housing starts are lower for the
fifth consecutive month, with the trend measure of housing starts in Canada dropping
to 182,137 units in February compared to 188,761 in January, according to
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving
average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing
starts.
March 9, 2015 – Canadian housing starts are lower for the
fifth consecutive month, with the trend measure of housing starts in Canada dropping
to 182,137 units in February compared to 188,761 in January, according to
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving
average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing
starts.
“The trend in housing starts decreased for a fifth
consecutive month in February and reflects a decreasing trend in multiple
starts,” said Bob Dugan, Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre. “The
declining trend in multiple starts is helping to gradually erode the inventory
of completed and unsold units, which is high compared to historical levels.”
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 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 was 156,276 units in February,
down from 187,025 units in January. The SAAR of urban starts decreased to
140,722 in February, from 171,950 in January. The decrease in February reflects
broad based declines in eight of the ten provinces. The decrease was led by
multiple urban starts, which reached 86,214 units in February down from 115,123
in January. Single-detached urban starts decreased to 54,508 units in February
from 56,827 the previous month.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 15,554 units.
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