Canadian Housing Starts Rise

Canada's seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts jumped to 223,200 units in October from 209,000 units in September, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp."Despite the increase in October, the pace of housing starts has been slower since August compared to the first half of 2006," said Bob Dugan, chief economist at CMHC. "This is consistent with our view that residential construction will decrease gradually between now and the end of 2007." The corporation can be found on the Web at http://www.cmhc.ca.