Housing Starts statistics released out of Canada today increased more than expected in March according to a report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Canadian housing starts rose by 13.7 percent in March to an 
annual rate of 154,700 units. March’s data follows an annual rate of 136,100 units in February and surpassed market forecasts expecting housing starts to fall to an annual rate of 130,000.
Bob Dugan, Chief Economist at CMHC’s Market Analysis Centre commented in the report on the real estate market saying, “Higher multiple starts in Ontario and Quebec were the main contributors to the rise in new construction activity in March,” and that, “While the multiples segment experienced the largest increase, the overall boost in starts was broad based, encompassing the singles segment as well.”
Contributing to the increased housing starts data for March was a 17 percent gain of housing starts in urban areas. Single housing starts in urban areas rose a modest 1.3 percent while multiple start properties jumped by 28.3 percent for the month. The bulk of the rise in urban starts were seen in Ontario and Quebec with increases of 35 percent and 23.3 percent, respectively. Declines in urban starts were registered in British Columbia(-17.3%), Atlantic Canada(-7.9%) and Prairies(-7.5%).
Canadian Loonie mixed in currency trading today.
The Canadian loonie dollar has been mixed today in the currency trading markets against most of the major currencies. The loonie has gained versus the US dollar, Japanese yen and British pound while falling to the euro and New Zealand dollar and trading almost unchanged versus the Australian dollar.
The US dollar has fallen today to trading under 1.2400 loonie per usd today after opening today’s trading at the exchange rate of 1.2420. The USD/CAD pair has declined today to trading at 1.2363 at 4:54pm EST according to currency data from Oanda.
The euro has gained ground against the loonie as the EUR/CAD trades at 1.6412 after opening the day at 1.6393. The Canadian dollar has gained ground on the Japanese yen as the CAD/JPY has increased from its 80.51 opening to trading at 80.71 later today.
The British pound has fallen today versus the loonie as the GBP/CAD currency pair trades at 1.8191 after opening the day at 1.8250. The New Zealand dollar has climbed against the loonie as the NZD/CAD trades at 0.7167 from 0.7112 and the Australian dollar trades right around today’s opening exchange rate of 0.8779.
USD/CAD Chart – The US Dollar declining versus the Canadian Dollar today below the 1.2400 level.
