Housing starts trend higher in Canada

Housing starts in Canada trended higher in July compared to June, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Friday. The trend in housing starts, which is a six-month rolling average on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, came to 187,416 in July. In the previous month, the adjusted six-month rolling average was 182,142. The stand alone 12-month annual rate for July, seasonally adjusted, was 192,853, down slightly from the 193,797 mark from June, the national housing agency said. "For the past few months, total housing starts have followed the stabilizing trend observed in sales of existing homes earlier this year. As expected, the trends in the two market segments typically follow a similar pattern with the new home market lagging behind the existing home market by a few months," said Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC in a statement. In the month, the seasonally adjusted annual rate for urban starts fell 2.1 percent to 173,042 units, mostly due to a 5.5 percent decline in single urban starts to 58,731 units. Multiple-unit urban housing starts was little changed with 114,311 starts, CMHC said.