OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian housing starts fell 23% in May compared with the previous month as groundbreaking decreased on multiple unit and single-family detached urban homes, data from the national housing agency showed on Thursday.
The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 202,494 units from a marginally revised 261,357 units in April, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said.
Economists in a Reuters poll expected starts to decrease to 235,000 in May.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Fergal Smith in Toronto; editing by John Stonestreet)