Housing Starts See Largest Monthly Increase In A Decade, But Growth Will Be “Short Lived”Housing starts shot up across Canada in June, leading to the largest monthly increase in a decade. However, the burst is expected to be short lived as high interest rates continue to weigh on the economy., the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts jumped to 281,373 units in June, a 41% increase from May, which marks the largest monthly SAAR change in the last 10 years.
Much of the activity was concentrated in the Vancouver and Toronto Census Metropolitan Areas — together, the two cities accounted for 47% of total housing starts in Canada’s urban centres in June. Although half of the cities to post monthly declines were in Ontario, the province still managed to see a 75% jump in total housing starts in June. Alongside Vancouver, sizeable gains in Victoria and Kelowna propelled British Columbia to a 64% monthly increase in housing starts.