![\"canadian-home-construction-highest-level\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/canadian-home-construction-highest-level.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: James Bombales<\/em><\/p>\nCanadian home builders were busy again last month as housing starts nationwide rose 17 percent over February 2020 levels.<\/p>\n
While building activity declined on a monthly basis from an exceptionally active January, TD Senior Economist Sri Thanabalasingam said home construction in February remained \u201cwell above pre-pandemic norms\u201d which reflected \u201cthe vibrancy in Canada\u2019s housing market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Data on housing starts, released monthly by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), measures how many homes began construction during a given period and are viewed as a key factor in determining market health.<\/p>\n
There were 245,900 annualized housing starts logged in February, according to the CMHC. This means that if the pace of home construction recorded in February continued for a full 12-month period, builders would start construction on 245,900 units of housing, including both single-family and multi-family units.<\/p>\n
In commentary published this week on the housing starts data, BMO Senior Economist Robert Kavcic wrote that by one measure, Canadian home construction is trending at a pace unseen since 2008. The 13-year high he\u2019s referring to is in the 12-month average for housing starts which, including February\u2019s strong figures, is now sitting at 227,000 annualized units.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good thing since the bank\u2019s economic research team recently published a separate report encouraging home builders to further ramp up new supply to help ease some of the home price pressure the country is facing.<\/p>\n
And, at least in the near term, it appears home construction will continue at this above-average pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking ahead, there is little indication that homebuilding activity will revert to historical means anytime soon. A record number of residential permits have been issued recently, aiding housing starts in the coming months,\u201d wrote TD\u2019s Thanabalasingam.<\/p>\n
Residential permits are considered a bellwether for future home building because they function as a requisite green light for builders to start construction.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good thing since BMO recently published a separate report encouraging home builders to further ramp up new supply to help ease some of the home price pressure the country is facing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":214657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-03-19T14:04:03Z","apple_news_api_id":"1ecb609b-6834-4f75-a9fc-af6f1c8fd988","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-03-19T14:04:03Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AHstgm2g0T3Wp_K9vHI_ZiA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/u48r14.digitalhub.com\/sections\/09b86915-7d2b-3acd-915b-b215002d01b7"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11269],"tags":[],"coauthors":[8652],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n