Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts declined 15 percent in January.
The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 238,049 units in January compared with 280,668 units in December.
It says the January drop more than offset the increase observed in December.
Actual housing starts were up one percent year-over-year in centres with a population of 10,000 or greater.
Some 16,088 unit starts in those centres were recorded in January, compared with 15,957 a year ago.
The six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was down 3.5 percent in January at 254,794 units.
