Housing starts in Québec's urban centres were trending at 31 165 units in October, compared to 31 862 in September, 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 prolonged nature of the current slowdown in residential housing starts in Quebec attests to the combined impact of economic and market factors,‖ said Kevin Hughes, CMHC 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.
The stand-alone monthly SAAR was 30 524 units in October, down from 31 694 in September.