OTTAWA — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts picked up in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 245,657 units compared with 196,809 units in May.
The result topped the 210,000 units that economists had expected, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
The increase in the pace home starts came as the rate of urban starts increased by 26 per cent in June to 234,238 units.
The annualized pace of multiple-unit projects such as condominiums, apartments and townhouses increased by 31 per cent to 185,804 units last month, while the pace of single-detached urban starts rose eight per cent to 48,434 units.
Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 11,419 units.
The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates was 205,838 units in June compared with 200,530 in May.