The annual pace of Canadian housing starts picked up in September and came in higher than expected.
A report Thursday morning from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the seasonally-adjusted annual rate of housing starts increased to 230,701 units in September. That was up from 214,255 units in August.
Economists had expected the annual pace in September to come in at 200,000 starts, according to Thomson Reuters.
The pace of urban starts increased by 7.7% in September to 216,194 units. Multi-unit urban starts increased by 10.5% to 157,919, while single-detached urban starts increased by 0.8% to 58,275 units.
The pace of urban starts increased in Quebec, the Prairies, Atlantic Canada and British Columbia, but decreased in Ontario.
The annual rate of rural starts was estimated at 14,507 units.
