Canada's Housing Starts Downward Trend Seen Continuing After August's Unchanged Data, CMHC Says

08:31 AM EDT, 09/16/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Canada's housing starts were broadly flat in August, with the seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) at 229,046 units, compared with 229,360 in July, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in a Wednesday note. August's unchanged housing starts were worse than a consensus 240,000 figure provided by Bloomberg's survey. Actual monthly starts in centres with populations of 10,000 or more fell 2% year over year to 17,691 units, while year-to-date starts declined 4% to 149,542 units, said CMHC. "While the current pace of starts is elevated compared to recent years, we expect the downward trend to continue as construction activity moderates in the coming months especially towards the end of the year," wrote Kevin Hughes, deputy chief economist at CMHC. The rural starts monthly SAAR estimate was 11,224 units. CMHC, the country's national housing agency, defines a housing start as the beginning of construction work on the building where the dwelling unit will be located. It uses a rate adjustment to remove the data's seasonal variations.