Housing start
iStockphoto/benedek

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts rose 30% in April compared with March.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for April was 278,606 units, up from 214,205 in March.

Urban housing starts climbed 28% to an annual rate of 259,788 units, compared with 202,668 in March.

CMHC says actual urban housing starts in April totalled 21,720 units, up 17% from 18,539 a year earlier.

The annual pace of rural starts was estimated at 18,818 units.

The six-month moving average of the overall seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 240,905 in April, up 2.4%.