Housing starts dip

Canadian housing starts dropped in January to 191,456, compared to 194,518 in December.

So finds the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which adds the trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates of housing starts.

The number of starts was likely affected by the dip in newly completed and unabsorbed units in the last half of 2013, says CMHC.

Read: Home prices inch up in 2013, strong year ahead

“This [trend] is consistent with our expectation that builders will continue to gradually adjust activity in order to manage their levels of inventory,” says Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts in January increased in the Prairies and in Ontario, while decreasing in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and British Columbia. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,090 units.

For more housing data, click here and here.

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