CMHC says annual pace of housing starts up 18 per cent in December

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in December rose 18 per cent compared with November, helped higher by an increase in multi-unit urban starts in Vancouver and Montreal.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for December was 249,255 units, up from 210,918 in November.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate for December for urban housing starts rose 20 per cent to 234,705 as the pace of multi-unit urban starts increased 26 per cent to 191,463. The rate of single-detached urban starts fell two per cent to 43,242.

The annual pace of rural starts was estimated at 14,550 for December.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts in December was 249,898, down 2.1 per cent from 255,198 in November.

For the full year, CMHC says actual urban housing starts in 2023 were down seven per cent at 223,513, compared with 240,590 in 2022, as single-detached home starts fell 25 per cent last year.