– Housing starts dipped by 3.5% to an annualized 174,900 in April 2013, which was in line with market expectations for a 175,000 reading.
– The monthly pullback in homebuilding activity reflected weakness in both urban multiple-units starts (-3.5%) and rural starts (-10.1%) while urban single-unit starts remained relatively unchanged (-0.9%).
– The slowing in starts activity was concentrated in Atlantic Canada (-40.8%), Ontario (-14.9%), and British Columbia (-5.6%), while gains in Quebec (14.8%) and the Prairies (9.3%) provided a partial offset.
Canadian housing starts dipped by 3.5% to an annualized pace of 174,900 in April 2013 from the upwardly revised 181,100 in March (previously reported as 180,900). The monthly pullback in homebuilding activity in April, which was in line with market expectations for a decline to 175,000, reflected weakness in both urban multiple-units starts (down 3.5% to 93,500) and rural starts (down 10.1% to 21,300) while urban single-unit starts remained relatively unchanged (down 0.9% to 60,100).
The slowing in starts activity was concentrated in Atlantic Canada (-40.8%), Ontario (-14.9%), and British Columbia (-5.6%) mainly reflecting declines in multiple-unit starts in each region (-72.0%, -23.2 %, and -8.2%, respectively). In contrast, Quebec (14.8%) and the Prairies (9.3%) had solid increases led by jumps in multiple-unit construction.
New home construction continued its decidedly downward trend in April as the six-month moving average of housing starts (which the CMHC refers to as the “trend” rate) fell to 182,800 annualized units, its lowest level since May 2011. This ongoing moderation in homebuilding activity is consistent with our viewpoint that the Canadian housing sector is undergoing a gradual cooling as housing market activity transitions to levels that are more sustainable in the longer run.
RBC