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Housing starts rise in July
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CBC News- Canadian housing starts rose 4.3 per cent in July from the month earlier, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Tuesday.
The corporation said starts rose to 205,100 units on a seasonally adjusted annual rate compared with 196,600 and that builders started more condos and apartments.
Starts in urban areas rose by 4.7 per cent on an annual basis to 185,200. Multiple urban starts were 13 per cent higher at 120,200 units, while urban single starts decreased by 7.8 per cent to 65,000 units.
Overall urban starts were up 36.1 per cent in the Atlantic region, 33 per cent in British Columbia and 1.7 per cent in Ontario, the agency said. Quebec posted a decrease of 7.8 per cent in July, while urban starts were off 0.3 per cent in the Prairies.
Through the first seven months of 2011, multi-unit starts were up 16.4 per cent over the same period a year earlier, while single family units fell 22.1 per cent over the period.
As of June, newly completed and unoccupied multi-family units were 51 per cent above the 10-year average, mostly due to Vancouver and Calgary, with Toronto close to average, while singles were four per cent below.
"While many economic indicators have pointed to much softer growth through the summer, Canadian housing starts is not one of them," Robert Kavcic of BMO Capital Markets said in a commentary.
Still, he warned, concerns about a possible slowdown in the economy could lead to a slowing of housing starts later in the year.
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