The data, released
by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) on Monday, revealed that the
seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts came in at 229,030 units in February,
down 4.3 per cent from a downwardly revised 239,322 units (from 239,739 units)
in January. This represented the lowest reading since September 2024 (224,089 units).
Economists had anticipated
an annual pace of 250,000 in February.
According to
the report, urban starts plummeted by 4.7 per cent m-o-m last month to 209,784 units,
the lowest level in six months, reflecting a 5.5 per cent m-o-m tumble in
multiple urban starts to 166,508 and a
1.2 per cent m-o-m drop in single-detached urban starts to 43,276.
Meanwhile,
rural starts were calculated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 19,246 units,
unchanged m-o-m.