OTTAWA, Feb 17 - Canadian housing starts rose 3% in January compared with the previous month as groundbreaking increased on multiple unit urban homes, data from the national housing agency showed on Monday.
The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts rose to 239,739 units in January from revised 232,492 units in December, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said.
Economists had expected starts to rise to 252,500 units.
Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Toby Chopra