By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA--Canadian housing starts fell in April after reaching a four-decade high in the previous month, although the level of construction activity remains elevated.
Housing starts for April came in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 268,631 units, or a decline of 19.8% from 334,759 units in March, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Monday. Market expectations had housing starts for April at 290,000, according to economists at Desjardins Securities.
The trend measure for April, or a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts, rose to 279,055 units, up from 272,164 units in the previous month.
"Housing starts remained hot in April, just not at the scorching temperature from March," said Royce Mendes, an economist at CIBC Capital Markets. He said April's starts are still well above the 210,000 monthly average observed in the years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic.
CMHC said starts in urban markets fell 16.9%, mostly due to a sharp drop in construction tied to multifamily units such as condominiums. Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted rate of 17,127 units.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-17-21 0850ET
