Housing starts in Quebec were trending at 31,413 units in January, compared to 31,992 units in December, 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 lower pace of housing starts in January is observable in both single detached and multi-family home categories. We expect that the number of housing starts in Quebec this year will remain relatively stable compared to 2014. Both the state of the economy and expected conditions on the resale market will sustain demand for new homes,” 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 26,819 units in January, down from 29,408 in December.