The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose by 23.1 percent in January to 282,428 units, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reports. When excluding the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Kelowna, where data for December were not collected, January’s pace was 281,389 units, up 22.7 percent from December’s 229,350 units.
Excluding Kelowna CMA, the SAAR of urban starts increased by 27.2 percent to 265,838 units, with the rate of single-detached starts up 36.8 percent to 72,882 units. Rural starts were estimated at a SAAR of 15,551 units (both with and without Kelowna).
