The annual pace of housing starts slowed in August from that of July, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said on Friday.
The monthly seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts was 267,443 units in August, down 3% from 275,158 units the previous month, the federal housing agency said.
The annual trend in housing starts in urban centers fell 3 per cent in August to 246,771, while that of multi-unit housing fell 4 per cent to 187,602. totaled 59,169, an increase of 1%. Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted and annualized rural housing starts were estimated at 20,672.
The six-month moving average of seasonally adjusted and annualized monthly housing starts was 267,309 in August, up from 264,467 in July, CMHC said.
“As previous months’ data on building permits suggests, construction activity is doing particularly well despite a historic slowdown in the Canadian resale market. Housing starts are nonetheless showing signs of weakening. We believe that this is only the beginning of a slowdown in the residential construction sector , underlines Marc Désormeaux, senior economist at Desjardins Group. Construction generally lags behind procurement. It therefore seems inevitable that it will cool down, given the marked and widespread drop in sales and prices of existing properties in Canada that has occurred in recent months. »
The economist adds that she expects greater repercussions from the effects of the correction in the housing market on the construction sector. “These forces will gain even more momentum when the Bank of Canada raises rates again in October. We believe this could push the Canadian economy into recession in the first half of 2023.”
With Duty
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