After rising by 6.5% in July, seasonally adjusted housing starts in Alberta fell by 2.0% in August.

As with many other economic indicators, things are much better than last year with starts up by 54.0% compared to August 2020. If we look back to the period before COVID, starts this August were 3.1% higher than in August 2019.

Also encouraging is that average starts over the first 8 months of the year were the highest since 2015. Year-to-date starts in 2021 were 21.4% above the bar set over the same period in 2019.

Nationally, the pace of housing starts slowed by 3.9% in August versus July. Starts were down in every province except Ontario and Manitoba.

Answer to the previous trivia question: William Lyon Mackenzie King holds the record for the longest amount of time in the position, serving 21 years, 154 days, non-consecutively, between 1921 and 1948.

Today’s trivia question (the last of a special non-partisan federal election series): Which three provinces have never had a Prime Minister drawn from among their MPs?