Housing starts in Quebec were trending at 32,187 units in August, compared to 30,108 units in July, 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 upward trend is attributable to the apartment segment, in particular to retirement homes, where construction is rising in anticipation of the imminent acceleration of population aging. These results are in line with our forecast, which calls for a rebound in activity in the second half of the year,” said Kevin Hughes, CMHC Regional 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 35,261 units in August, down slightly from 36,826 in July.