Canada housing starts fall 3% in August as multi-units decline

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian housing starts fell 3% in August compared with the previous month as a decline in multi-unit urban starts offset a slight increase in single-detached, data from the national housing agency showed on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts was 267,443 units in August, down from a revised 275,158 units in July, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) data showed. Analysts had forecast starts would dip to 265,000.

(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)