The annual rate of housing starts reached 174,500 units in December, up nearly 10,000 from November.

A construction worker cleans up after rain as he works on a new home. Housing starts hit an annual rate of 174,000 units in December, the CMHC says. (Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

The improvement in housing starts was broad-based, with increases in both single and multiple starts coming in 9,700 higher than the previous month, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Monday.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban starts increased 6.6 per cent to 157,100 units in December.

Urban multiple starts such as condominiums increased by 6.7 per cent to 77,700 units, while single urban starts increased 6.4 per cent to 79,400 units.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,400 units in December.

The showing was the third consecutive monthly increase in homebuilding activity, and helped end 2009 on a strong note, TD economist Pascal Gauthier said. On average, economists were expecting a rate of 160,000 starts in the month.

Regionally, the rate of urban starts for the month increased by 17.8 per cent in Quebec, by 15 per cent in Atlantic Canada, by 8.7 per cent in British Columbia and by 2.9 per cent in Ontario. The rate of urban starts decreased by 3.8 per cent in the Prairies, the CMHC said.

The report "confirmed rather than altered our views on homebuilding activity going forward," Gauthier said. "A sustained improvement in homebuilding activity will continue to unfold in the first half of this year."