Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, housing starts in all centres 10,000 and over, Canada, provinces, and census metropolitan areas, 6-month moving average — AI AnalysisCanada's housing starts (6-month moving average) have trended strongly upward over 35 years, peaking at 255,646 units in September 2022 and remaining near historic highs at 238,973 units as of February 2026, driven overwhelmingly by multi-unit construction. The data — spanning 50,622 records across Key Findings

Canada's total housing starts peaked at 255,646 units in September 2022 and remain elevated at 238,973 units as of February 2026, reflecting sustained post-pandemic construction activity.

Multi-unit dwellings (Multiples) are the dominant driver of national housing starts, correlating with Total units at r=0.926, while Single-detached units show virtually no correlation with national totals (r=-0.008), indicating they move independently.

Apartment and other unit types are nearly perfectly correlated with the Multiples category (r=0.997), confirming these two classifications capture essentially the same construction trend.

The dataset is heavily right-skewed: the median housing starts value across all regions is just 2,374 units versus a mean of 10,631 units, reflecting that a small number of large urban markets — particularly in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia — dominate national activity.

The lowest national housing starts on record occurred in April 1996 at 84,894 units, marking the trough of mid-1990s economic stagnation, compared to the 2022 peak — a roughly 3x increase over that period.

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