December proved to be a strong month for Canadian housing starts, but it wasn’t enough to bring 2023’s level ahead of 2022’s curve. New data from CMHC shows that the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of total starts jumped 18% to 249,255 units in December, after plunging 22% in November. …The six-month trend in housing starts slipped 2.1% to 249,898 units in December, CMHC’s data shows. …Despite picking up in December, TD Economist Rishi Sondhi says that starts are on track to “trend lower” in the year to come due largely to the weaker resale and presale conditions that characterized 2023. “That weak demand is probably going to start showing up this year, particularly in the condo space,” Sondhi says. “That’s not to say that starts are going to collapse; they’re still going to be quite elevated.”