Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, August 2026 housing starts release, year-to-date table, Alberta row. 36,177 in 2025. 30,557 in 2026. Down 16%.
That row sits a few tables below the August line everyone passed around on Wednesday morning. The August line was good news, and it was real. Alberta started 4,439 homes last month in urban centres of at least 10,000 people, up 14% from August 2025, while Ontario started 3,882, down 22%.
One month. The year says something else, and Albertans deciding to build, buy or wait should read both.
Key facts
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation counted 4,439 actual housing starts in Alberta urban centres with populations of 10,000 and up in August 2026, up 14% from 3,909 in August 2025.
- Ontario urban centres with populations of 10,000 and up recorded 3,882 actual housing starts in August 2026, down 22% from 4,982 a year earlier, in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation release of September 16, 2026.
- From January to August 2026, Alberta recorded 30,557 housing starts in urban centres of at least 10,000 people, 16% below the 36,177 recorded over the same months of 2025, per Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s year-to-date count to August 2026 puts the Calgary census metropolitan area at 15,077 starts, down 19%, and Toronto at 15,957, down 3%.
- The seasonally adjusted six-month trend for Alberta housing starts reached 46,596 units in August 2026, up 3% from July, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
What the August line in the release measures
The August figures are actual starts, counted in one month and set beside the same month a year earlier. They are not seasonally adjusted. One large rental project breaking ground can move them.
Inside Alberta, the month was even. Calgary started 2,222 homes against 2,031 in August 2025, up 9%. Edmonton started 1,796 against 1,642, also up 9%. Toronto, for the record, started 1,192, down 45%.
The smoothed number agrees with the direction. Alberta’s six-month trend rose 3% from July to 46,596 units at an annual rate, while Ontario’s fell 7% to 58,933. Calgary’s trend rose 7%. Edmonton’s moved about 1%.
So the summer turn shows up in two measures. A recovery would need it to show up in the year.
How the year to date reads province by province
Set the four largest provinces side by side for January to August, and the order flips.
Quebec, 35,030 starts, up 6%. Ontario, 39,823, up 3%. British Columbia, 25,876, down 10%. Alberta, 30,557, down 16%.
Alberta has the steepest decline of the four. Calgary alone is down 19% for the year, and Toronto, which had a dreadful August, has still started more homes than Calgary since January, 15,957 to 15,077. Edmonton sits at 12,654, down 14%.
None of that erases what Alberta built. The province came into 2026 off three record years, a point this page made in July when Alberta housing starts fell 21% after three record years. A household that renovated three rooms in three years does not panic when it only does one the next spring. It checks that the budget still balances.
The budget, in this case, is completions against demand, and Calgary finishing more homes than it starts is the other half of that ledger. A slower year of starts following record years is a market pacing itself. It is a problem only if the slowdown outruns the population.
What the federal forecast says comes next
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation expects the slide to run through the fall. Deputy chief economist Kevin Hughes, in the release, said “we expect the downward trend to continue” as construction moderates toward year end. He named modest gains in Quebec and Alberta as the partial offset to declines elsewhere, most notably Ontario.
He is forecasting a cooling from an elevated pace, and that is the right frame for the August number. Alberta’s monthly beat over Ontario is a true line in a federal table. Treating it as the year’s verdict would be the same mistake as reading a single good paycheque as a balanced household budget.
The September count comes out October 16 at 8:15 a.m. Eastern, 6:15 a.m. in Calgary and Edmonton. Skip the national chart, go to the year-to-date table, and check if Alberta’s row is still down 16% or has started to narrow.
