Housing starts in Quebec were trending at 32,704 units in September, compared to 32,111 units 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.
“In September, like in certain other months during the year, the start of construction on some large residential projects brought about an increase in the rate of housing starts. This phenomenon therefore supported strong residential construction in the province, especially in Montréal, Québec and Trois-Rivières. The rise in the pace of multi-unit housing starts more than offset the slowdown in single-detached home construction. The relatively significant supply that persists on the resale market, combined with the weak employment growth, continues to limit homebuilding overall,” 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 34,767 units in September, up from 29,807 in August.