Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The pace of new-home construction in Canada increased slightly last month, rising to 170,400 units on a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
That's up from 169,000 in December, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
The federal agency says the higher seasonally adjusted rate was due to an increase in rural areas of the country.
The rate of urban starts fell 1.7 per cent to 146,900 units.
The estimated number of actual housing starts in January, without seasonal adjustments, was 10,584.
That's down from January 2010, when there were 11,172 actual starts according to revised figures from CMHC.