The housing starts measures the variation in number of new inhabited housing projects that starts construction during the stated month. It is leading indicator in the housing sector.
The housing starts Canada begin to show crack in March 2020 due to COVID-19. Canadian housing decline to 7.3% in March, this brought the six month moving average down to 204.7k as compare to February 209.1k. According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, deterioration was determined in multifamily units, multiple urban units dropped by 13.4%, urban starts dropped by 7.3%, while single detached starts increased by 8.8%.
The report of housing starts Canada is released on monthly basis usually at 8:15 AM EST by Statistics Canada. The reading higher than expected taken as bullish/positive for CAD, while reading lower than expected taken as bearish/negative for CAD traders.