Decline In Housing Starts As Multi-Family Units Struggle To Keep Up

The housing starts for last month with CMHC’s 6-month movement that was being measured showed that there were only 195,640 units which were different and lower than the 201,379 in July. The agency, however, said that the total supply in other areas is still at a high level.

The CHMC Chief Economist, Bob Dugan said: “Housing starts declined in August, as constructions of multi-unit dwellings slowed in most regions, led by lower activity in Alberta and Manitoba. However, housing market activity levels remain elevated and this decline in starts is the market’s response to increasing levels of supply. Multi-unit inventories are above average in several major markets across the country.”

The seasonal changes of the annual starts rate alone went down from July (194.663) to 182,703 last month, and the starts for the urban area decreasing by 6.1 percent. The starts for the multi-family in urban areas went down by 7.3 percent to 111,378, while the single-family units in the urban area had their starts decline by 3.7 percent to 56,501. Other areas like Ontario, Atlantic Canada, Prairies and British Columbia experienced a decline in their housing starts. Quebec, on the other hand, had their figures go up.