Housing starts rise in June: CMHC

Housing starts by Canadian builders increased 9.5 per cent in June, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) said Thursday.

The agency said theseasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 140,700 units in June, up from 130,300 units in May.

The June rate for urban as opposed to rural starts was up nearly60 per cent in the Prairies, 25 per cent in British Columbia, and 3.1 per cent in Ontario. There was a6.3 per cent drop in Quebec and 3.9 per centslide inAtlantic Canada.

Urban starts, which account for most of the starts, rosenearly 10per cent to 120,100 units in June. Urban multiple starts, which account for more than half the total urban number, rose faster than single starts.

The 140,700 June figure is close to CMHC's latest full-year forecast, but about 70,000 or 33 per cent below the 2008 number.

Its most recent full-year forecast, in May, predicted there would be 141,900 starts this year. There were 211,056 in 2008.

CMHC saidstarts "are expected to improve throughout 2009 and over the next several years to gradually become more closely aligned to demographic demand, which is currently estimated at about 175,000 units per year."

The starts figuresare seasonally adjusted annual rates monthly figures adjusted to remove normal seasonal variations and multiplied by 12 to create an annual figure.