New home construction down 22% in August, says CMHC

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of new home construction, known as housing starts, slowed 22 per cent in August compared with July.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts came in at 217,405 units in August, down from 279,804 a month earlier.

The drop came as the annual pace of urban starts fell 24 per cent to 199,478 units compared with 261,043 in July.

The annual rate of starts of multi-unit urban projects such as apartments, condominiums and townhouses dropped 29 per cent to 154,290 units, while the rate of single-detached urban starts rose three per cent to 45,188.

The annual pace of rural starts was estimated at 17,927 units.

CMHC says the six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 248,480 units in August, down 2.9 per cent from 255,794 in July.