WARM WEATHER IN MARCH HELPS BOOST HOUSING STARTS

Canadian housing starts rose 21.6 per cent in March compared with the previous month, easily beating expectations and hitting a record, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Monday. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts rose to 335,200 units in March, well ahead of analyst expectations for 250,000 units, and a new high for all months on record. Much of the gain was on multiple urban starts, which jumped 33.8 per cent to 222,358 units. Single-detached urban starts rose 3.6 per cent to 78,615 units. “The big acceleration came as weather was unseasonably warm in many parts of the country,” said Royce Mendes, senior economist at CIBC Economics. Mendes added that new home construction will likely be a major contributor to overall GDP growth again in 2021, even as building activity cools off.