OTTAWA (09 August 2012) - Housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate of 208,500 units in July from 222,100 units in June, according to the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC).  Decreases were noted in both single and multiple unit starts.

CMHC also noted starts were trending at 219,600 in July. The trend is a moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

"For the first time in seven months, the July monthly SAAR estimate was below the trend estimate. The bulk of the July decrease was in the multiples segment in British Columbia," CMHC deputy chief economist Mathieu Laberge said in a statement.

He explained that for some markets, CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market. In some situations, analyzing only SAAR data can be misleading in some markets, as they are largely driven by the multiples segment of the markets which can be quite volatile from one month to the next.

Chart courtesy of Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts decreased by 6.4% to 187,300 units in July. Urban single starts decreased by 4.0% in July to 64,300 units, while multiple urban starts decreased by 7.6% to 123,000 units.

Actual starts for the month of July totaled 19,252 units, down slightly from the 19,423 units started in the same month last year. Single unit starts fell from 6,888 units to 6,315 although multiple unit starts climbed slightly from 10,342 units in July 2011 to 10,561 units.

July's seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased by 2.0% in Ontario and by 3.0% in Québec. Urban starts decreased by 29.2% in British Columbia, 18.4% in Atlantic Canada and by 8.8% in the Prairies.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 21,200 units in July.