Nearly all regions on track to beat 2016 housing starts levels

The annual pace of housing starts in Canada picked up in June, says the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in June came in at 212,695 units, up from 194,955 units in May.

Economists had expected the annual rate to come in at 200,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

In a CMHC release, chief economist Bob Dugan says only one region across Canada is behind trend. In June, he says, “The trend in housing starts for Canada reached its highest level in almost five years. So far this year, all regions are on pace to surpass construction levels from 2016 except for British Columbia, where starts have declined year-to-date after reaching near-record levels last summer.” Read more.

The overall increase in starts came as the pace of urban starts increased by 9.6% to 194,773 units. Multi-unit urban starts increased by 9.4% to 127,944, while single-detached urban starts increased by 10.1% to 66,829. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,922 units.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates increased to 215,459 in compared with 214,570 in May.

Staff, with files from The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.