The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. today reported a rise in the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts to 210,900 units in March, up from 196,000 units in February.

The housing agency says both multiple and single starts regained ground in March even though the trend is lower and first-quarter starts were down more than 10% from a year ago.

The annual rate of urban starts was 177,900 units in March, up 9.1% from February.

Starts increased in all regions except the Atlantic, with the Prairies leading the way with a 26.2% increase, followed by British Columbia at 11.3% and Quebec with 10.5%.

Actual starts in rural and urban areas combined were down about 8.8% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, with actual starts in urban areas alone dropping an estimated 10.3%.

Actual single starts in urban areas were 16.3% lower than they were a year earlier, while actual urban multiple starts were down 5.3%.