New home building in Canada slowed in December, CMHC reports

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in December slowed five per cent compared with November.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in December was 248,625 units compared with 263,022 in November.

The drop came as the annual pace of urban starts fell five per cent to 227,708.

The rate of multi-unit urban starts dropped four per cent to 182,850, while the pace of single-detached urban starts fell 11 per cent to 44,858.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 20,917 units for December.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts was 269,930 in December, down one per cent from 273,801 in November.