Canada Housing Starts Rise 3%

Canada’s annualized housing-start pace reached 248.9K units in Late-Q3, ↑~3% from Mid-Q3’s 242.2K, signaling slightly stronger construction momentum across Canada recently overall.
Actual monthly starts in Canadian communities above 10K people hit 20K units in Late-Q3, ↓~11% yearly from 22.4K a year earlier overall.
Rural housing starts were estimated at 18.1K annualized units, while the six-mo moving avg. of starts reached 250.4K, ↑<1% nationwide overall recently.
An economist said Canada still faced a long-term housing supply gap, keeping construction levels central to whether affordability improvements since 2023 can last.
The key takeaway for Canada: unless homebuilding rises further, the affordability progress seen since 2023 will be difficult to sustain over the longer term.