January Housing Starts Experience 10% Decrease, CMHC Report Reveals.

January Housing Starts

The annual rate of housing starts in January fell by 10% compared to December, as the pace of new multi-unit projects such as apartments, condominiums, and townhouses decreased.

Canada Mortgage and home Corp. reported on Thursday that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of home starts for the first month of the year was 223,589 units, compared to 248,968 in December 2023.

According to TD Bank economist Marc Ercolao, housing starts in early 2024 lost some of their previous vigor following a robust rise in December.

“The level of homebuilding is still elevated relative to historical norms, but today’s print supports our view that near-term starts will remain subdued in spite of the recent strength in home sales,” the economist noted in the report.

The reduction occurred as the yearly rate of urban dwelling starts fell 11% to 208,119 units, with multi-unit urban starts down 14% at 164,789 units and single-detached urban starts up 0.08 percent at 43,330 units.

Toronto’s annual rate of housing starts increased by 179%, owing to an increase in multi-unit starts, whereas Montreal and Vancouver fell by 28% and 55%, respectively, due to declines in multi-unit starts.

The Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo region in Ontario also had an 88% drop, while Ottawa fell 64%. Edmonton had a 53% reduction in new starts, while Calgary’s yearly rate increased 39% from December.

The annual rate of rural start-ups was calculated at 15,470.

According to CMHC, the actual number of housing starts in Canada’s metropolitan centres increased by 13% in January to 14,878 units, up from 13,220 in January 2023.

According to the organization, actual housing starts increased by 49% in Toronto but decreased by 44% in Vancouver and 6% in Montreal.

“In fact, from a historical perspective, we observed the second highest number of housing starts for the month of January going back to 1990,” said CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan.

The six-month moving average of monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts in January was 244,827, a 2% decrease from 249,757 units in December 2023.

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