"Total housing starts trended lower in February as the trend in single-detached and multi-family construction declined compared to the previous month," says Richard Cho, the CMHC's principal market analyst for the city.

"Competition from the resale market, full-time job losses, as well as reduced confidence in the economy has slowed demand for new homes."

The trend is calculated using a six-month moving average of the monthly, Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rates (SAAR) of total housing starts. CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the housing market.

In Calgary, the stand-alone monthly SAAR was 7,042 units in February, down from 7,573 in January. Actual housing starts in February totalled 589 units. In February 2015, starts were 791.