Housing starts in Québec's urban centres were trending at 35 443 units in July, compared to 34 694 in June, 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.
―Following a slowdown in June, residential construction picked up the pace in July, especially on account of the activity in the multiple-unit housing segment. Like in previous months, the start of construction on a number of large residential projects is bringing about some shifts in activity, which will continue to affect the rate of housing starts from now until the end of the year,‖ said Kevin Hughes, CMHC’s Regional Economist for the province of 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.
he stand-alone monthly SAAR was 31 854 units in July, down from 32 041 in June.