Housing Starts Advance in Canada

Tavia Grant from the Globe and Mail, reported that housing starts advanced 5.4 per cent last month as builders broke ground on more condos and apartments, more evidence that the Canadian residential construction is on the mend. Starts rose to 157,300 units in October, in line with economists' expectations, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported today. Record low interest rates will continue to spur home buying in the coming months and underpin residential construction activity, said Stewart Hall, economist at HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. The hub of activity though is really in the existing home sales market where levels of activity in many resale segments have exceeded the peaks recorded before the start of the recession. CMHC predicted last week that housing activity and prices will pick up next year as demand grows and interest rates stay low.