ANNUAL RATE OF CANADIAN HOUSING STARTS ROSE 8% IN APRIL, CMHC SAYS

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of new home construction in April rose 8 per cent compared with March.

The housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in April was 267,330 units, up from 248,389 in March. The increase came as the annual rate of urban starts rose 10 per cent to 245,324 units in April.

The annual rate of multiunit urban starts rose 14 per cent, to 178,092, while the pace of single-detached urban starts increased by 1 per cent to 67,232.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 22,006 units.