Housing starts dip in August as Calgary surprises

September 21, 2021


New house building in SE Calgary. | Calgary Home Boys

There were some surprises in the August housing starts report—actual starts of single-family detached houses across Canada were up 26 per cent from August 2020 and Calgary posted a triple-digit increase.
Calgary’s actual house starts rose 148 per cent to 524 units compared to August 2020. And Calgary was not the only major city posting big jumps in construction of detached houses. Edmonton marked a year-over-increase of 40 per cent. Saskatoon had a 29 per cent increase. Moncton house starts were up 75 per cent— to 28 new houses.
However, the national annual pace of housing starts was down in August 2021 from a month earlier, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).
CHMC said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 260,239 units in August, down from 270,744 in July.
The pace slowed as the annual rate of urban starts fell 4.7 per cent in August to 235,782.
The annual rate of urban starts for apartments, condos and other types of multiple-unit housing projects dropped 5.7 per cent to 173,120, while the rate of single-detached urban starts fell 2.0 per cent to 62,662.
CMHC estimated rural starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 24,457.
The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 283,971 in August, down from 286,076 in July.