Canadian housing starts in June fell 3% from the previous month on a decline in both multi-unit urban and single-detached starts, data from the national housing agency showed on Monday.
The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts was 273,841 units in June, beating analyst predictions of 265,000, but coming in below a revised 282,188 units in May according to date from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
CMHC uses the trend measure as a complement to the monthly SAAR of housing starts to account for considerable swings in monthly estimates and obtain a clearer picture of upcoming new housing supply.
In some situations, analyzing only SAAR data can be misleading, as the multi-unit segment largely drives the market and can vary significantly from one month to the next.
The standalone monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada in June was 273,841 units, a decrease of 3% from May.
The SAAR of total urban starts decrease by 3% to 257,438 units in June.
Multi-unit urban starts declined by 2% to 197,022 units, while single-detached urban starts decreased by 4% to 60,416 units.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16,403 units.