TORONTO: Canadian housing starts edged higher in March, the second straight month of gains, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp said on Tuesday in a report in which a longer-term trend still showed that the housing market is continuing to moderate.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts was 184,028 units in March, up from 183,207 in February. The February figure was revised up from the 180,719 units reported previously.

The number of starts in March was well above the forecasts of analysts in a Reuters poll, who had expected 176,500 starts.

Copyright Reuters, 2013