Housing & Affordability
Canada's housing market through prices, costs, and supply — the New Housing Price Index, year-over-year shelter inflation split into rent and mortgage interest cost, and CMHC housing starts. Based on Statistics Canada data and refreshed automatically.
Updated August 7, 20267 charts
Prices
Original analysis
New Housing Price Index in nominal and real terms since 1984 — the gap between the two lines is what general inflation accounts forHow to read: Nominal prices are up about a fifth since 2016. Adjusted for what happened to other prices, they are lower than they were.Data through Jun 2026
PricesOriginal analysis
Cumulative change in shelter costs since 2017, split by part of the bill — the bands add up to published shelter inflationHow to read: Each band is one part of the shelter bill weighted by its share of household spending, so they add to the black line.Data through Jun 2026
PricesOriginal analysis
Shelter costs after general inflation, separating the price of the dwelling from the cost of financing itHow to read: Mortgage interest is shown apart from the rest because it rises when the Bank of Canada raises rates, which is a borrowing cost rather than the price of housing.Data through Jun 2026
PricesSupply
CMHC housing starts, seasonally adjusted at annual ratesData through Jun 2026
SupplyOriginal analysis
Housing starts per 1,000 residents, annualised — how much gets built relative to the population that lives hereHow to read: Measured against how many people live here rather than how many arrived last year, so the rate cannot explode or flip sign when population growth nears zero. The dashed line is the median since 1990.Data through Q2 2026
SupplyConstruction
Original analysis
Renovation, new apartments and new single houses since 2010 — renovation is nearly three times what Canada spends building housesHow to read: Renovation is the largest single category of residential construction spending, and the gap over new houses has widened since 2010. Canadian NAICS cannot separate renovation from new build by jobs, only by dollars.Data through May 2026
ConstructionOriginal analysis
Population growth per housing start against what a new home actually holds — the gap is how far construction falls behindHow to read: Both lines are people per home. Where the dark line is higher, the year's construction could not house the year's population growth.Data through 2025
Construction