Fewer homes built in August

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 192,368 units in August, down from 199,813 in July. That fell short of the 195,000 units forecast by analysts for August.

And this decline was across all types of housing.

Read: Building permits up 11.8%

The federal agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts fell to 175,668 in August; multiple urban starts decreased to 110,842; and single-detached urban starts segment decreased to 64,826.

The BoC may be looking for a rotation away from housing and the consumer, but low rates continue to support residential investment, says Nick Exarhos of CIBC World Markets Inc.

Read: What’s on horizon for U.S. and Canada?

“The small drop brought the 6-month moving average to 190,ooo, a trend that’s been intact since mid-2013,” he says in a release. “But despite recent resiliency, we still expect housing’s contribution to growth to slowly wane as we progress through this business cycle, with affordability concerns and a weak labour market putting pressure on the building sector going forward.”

Staff, with files from The Canadian Press

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