Housing Starts Down in March

OTTAWA, Ontario, April 9, 2001 — The seasonally adjusted annual rate* of housing starts in Canada fell 1.5 per cent in March to 153,800 units compared with 156,100 in February, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

The annual urban single starts rate fell 5.5 per cent to 78,600 in March from 83,200 units the previous month. Urban multiple starts were up 4.3 per cent to an annual rate of 56,100 units in March compared with 53,800 in February, due to more starts in Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

"Construction activity rebounded in March in Ontario and Alberta, but dropped in the Atlantic due to severe weather", said John-John D'Argensio, an economist at CMHC's Market Analysis Centre. "Low mortgage rates and low inventories of new and existing units on the market will help offset adverse impacts of a slowing economy on housing starts this year".

* All starts figures in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR), that is, raw monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect an annual pace. Other CMHC local and provincial releases may present analysis using raw figures.