Housing starts in Québec's urban centres were trending at 31,862 units in September, compared to 31,383 in August, 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 particularly weak level of housing starts in 2013 reflects a less favorable home building environment: moderate economic growth, an easing resale market and a relatively high supply of new homes,‖ 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 31,716 units in September, up from 29,943 in August