Housing starts in Quebec were trending at 27,017 units in April, compared to 28,380 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) of housing starts.
“The rate of housing starts in April is the lowest thus far in the year. Given the numerous multi-housing projects that are about to begin, we are expecting that the rate of housing starts will soon rebound in Quebec,”said Kevin Hughes, CMHC’s Senior Economist for Quebec.
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 variable from one
month to the next.
The stand-alone monthly SAAR was 23,120 units in April, down from 25,997 in March.