December 2012 Housing Starts in Quebec

MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC--(Marketwire - Jan. 9, 2013) - Housing starts in Québec were trending at 40,349 units in December, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)¹ of housing starts. The standalone monthly SAAR was 36,210 units in December, down from 41,063 in November.

"As expected, in Quebec, the pace of residential housing starts has been weaker during the past months, notably in the apartment segment. Considering the economic outlook, the easing in the resale market and expected supply, the rate of housing starts will further weaken. The yearly total of housing starts for 2012 is in-line with our forecast," said Kevin Hughes, CMHC's Regional Economist for Quebec.

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, analysing 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 variable from one month to the next.

Single-detached starts amounted to 739 actual units in December 2012. Multiple starts totalled 2,403 actual units in December. Between January and December, total starts have reached 40,526 compared to 41,799 during the same period last year.

Preliminary Housing Starts data is also available in English and French at the following link: Preliminary Housing Starts Tables

As Canada's national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable and affordable housing solutions. CMHC also provides reliable, impartial and up-to-date housing market reports, analysis and knowledge to support and assist consumers and the housing industry in making informed decisions.

¹ All starts figures in this release, other than actual starts and the trend estimate, are seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) - that is, monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variation and multiplied by 12 to reflect annual levels. By removing seasonal ups and downs, seasonal adjustment allows for a comparison from one season to the next and from one month to the next. Reporting monthly figures at annual rates indicates the annual level of starts that would be obtained if the monthly pace was maintained for 12 months. This facilitates comparison of the current pace of activity to annual forecasts as well as to historical annual levels.

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Additional data is available upon request.

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Preliminary Housing Start Data
December / 2011-2012
Province, Centres 10,000+			December 2011	December 2012
	Actual, urban centres1
		December - Single-Detached	858	739
		December - Multiples	2,984	2,403
		December - Total	3,842	3,142
		January to December - Single-Detached	11,516	10,656
		January to December - Multiples	30,283	29,870
		January to December - Total	41,799	40,526
			November 2012	December 2012
	SAAR2, urban centres1
		Total	41,063	36,210
Source: CMHC
1 Urban centres with a population of 10,000 and over.
2 Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates
Detailed data available upon request.