A construction worker works on a house in a new housing development in Oakville, Ont., north of Dundas Street, April 29. 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Buchan
July 10, 2012 - 8:37 AM
OTTAWA - Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the pace of housing starts rose in June, driven by urban multiple starts — condos, apartments and the like.
The federal agency estimates there were 20,327 actual starts in June across the country, up from 18,494 in June 2011.
Tweaked to remove monthly variations, that produced a seasonally adjusted annual figure of 222,700 last month, up from 217,400 in May.
Urban starts increased by 2.6 per cent to 199,500 units in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, with urban single starts off 0.3 per cent and multiple starts up 4.1 per cent to 132,000.
Urban starts for June rose 7.7 per cent in Atlantic Canada, 17.3 per cent in Quebec and by 31.2 per cent in British Columbia.
The number of starts slipped by 6.9 per cent in the Prairies and by nine per cent in Ontario.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012