By rdnewsNOW staff

Pandemic Impact

Local housing starts lower in 2020, says CMHC

Jan 21, 2021 | 11:58 AM

Travel restrictions due to COVID-19 are speculated to be among the factors resulting in fewer housing starts throughout Red Deer last year.

That according to Christian Arkilley, Senior Market Analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) who notes a significant drop in Red Deer housing starts last year when compared to 2019.

Arkilley says there were 13 housing starts in the city last month, down slightly from 15 housing starts throughout Red Deer in December, 2019.

“When you look at year-over-year, we have 171 units for the whole of 2020 versus 244 for 2019,” he points out. “When you look at the number we had for last year, it’s the lowest since 1990.”

Arkilley feels travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have likely impacted migration into the province, thereby affecting local housing starts as well.

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“We have not made any kind of projections or forecasts for the year (2021), but housing starts are definitely going to be impacted if restrictions remain as they are right now,” he suggests.

“In 2019 for example, we see that housing starts were driven mainly by apartment units,” adds Arkilley. “Then last year in 2020, apartments performed less than they did in 2019, while single detached housing starts were some of the lowest seen over the last 30 years.”

Despite increasing momentum to end the year in 2020, the number of housing starts throughout all of Alberta last month were still down on a year-over-year basis.

The latest figures released by CMHC) indicate 2,439 housing starts throughout Alberta last month – down 21 per cent (3,101) from the same month in 2019.

The last two months of the year, however, did show growing momentum throughout the province, with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 29,507 housing starts by year’s end – up 17 per cent from November, 2020.