OTTAWA – Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts picked up in June.
CMHC’s seasonally adjusted annual rate was 218,333 units in June, up from 186,709 in May.
Economists had expected June to come in at 190,000, according to Thomson Reuters.
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A major source of growth last month was multiple-unit projects in urban areas, which increased by 26.7 per cent to an annualized annual rate of 142,819 units.
Single-detached urban starts increased by 1.7 per cent to 59,883 and urban starts of both categories increased by 18.1 per cent in the month to 202,702 units.
B.C., Ontario, and the Prairies had increases in urban starts but Atlantic Canada and Quebec declined. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15,631 units.