Home building slows in August
Canadian housing starts declined more than expected last month, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Friday.
Financial Post · Sept. 9, 2011 | Last Updated: Sept. 9, 2011 12:05 PM ET
OTTAWA — Canadian housing starts declined more than expected last month, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Friday.
There was an annual rate of 184,700 homes for which work began on in August, the federal housing agency said. That was down 9.7% from 204,500 in July, which was revised down slightly from the previously reported 205,100.
Economists polled by Bloomberg expected a housing-start rate of 200,000 last month.
“Housing starts in August were in line with current demographic fundamentals and are consistent with CMHC’s recent housing market outlook,” Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC’s market analysis centre, said in a statement.
In urban areas, housing starts were down 10.2% to 165,800. That included a 15.5% decline in multiple-housing starts and 0.3% decline in singles.
Rural starts were down 5% to 18,900 in August.