Canadian housing starts slipped in April

Housing starts trended lower in April in Canada compared to the previous month, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Wednesday. The trend in housing starts, which is a six-month rolling average on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, came to 182,754 in April, down from 188,369 in March. The stand alone 12-monthly annual rate for April, seasonally adjusted, was 174,858, down from 181,146 in March, the national housing agency said. In April, the annual rate for urban housing starts on an adjusted basis came to 153,528, a 2.5 percent drop from March. For rural housing starts, the annual rate on an adjusted basis came to 21,300, relatively unchanged from March, the agency said.