Canada: Housing starts rebounded in March - RBC

Josh Nye, senior economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, notes that the Canadian housing starts rose to 193k annualized units in March after slowing to 166k in February.

Key Quotes

“The rebound was in line with market expectations and supports our view that February’s decline was due to wintry weather.”

“Starts for the quarter came in at their slowest pace since 2015, though that speaks more to the strength of homebuilding in recent years than it does weakness to start 2019.”

“In a separate report, building permit issuance slowed in February but remained robust at a 229k annualized pace, suggesting starts could return to above the 200k mark in the near-term.”