Construction companies in Alberta are planning to build more homes, but record population growth means the housing supply is playing catch-up.

With that in mind, today’s data on housing starts* up to October from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation are encouraging.

Over 53,000** new housing units were started in October—the highest monthly tally since June 2014 and 28% higher than the previous October.

Our current forecast is for housing starts in Alberta to total a little over 45,000 this year and next.

New construction is tilted toward the Calgary and Edmonton metro areas at about 82% of all housing starts in Alberta last month compared to about 66% of Alberta’s total population.

Of the two largest metro areas, there were more starts in Calgary at 47% of the provincial total compared to 35% in Edmonton. The trend, however, is strongly upward in both Calgary and Edmonton over the last year.

Alberta’s starts in October accounted for 22% of the national total (versus 12% of the national population) and points to a stronger pace of new construction in the province relative to the country as a whole.

*A housing start is defined as the beginning of construction work on the building where the dwelling unit will be located. This can be described in two ways: 1) the stage when the concrete has been poured for the whole of the footing around the structure; or 2) an equivalent stage where a basement will not be part of the structure.

**All data in this report have been seasonally adjusted at an annual rate or SAAR.

Answer to the previous trivia question: Petrified wood became Alberta's official stone in 1977.

Today’s trivia question: What does the logistics term “cross-docking” refer to?