Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in July fell compared with June.

The national housing agency says the annual pace of starts fell to 272,176 units in July compared with 281,200 in June.

The drop came as the pace of urban starts edged down 0.65 per cent in July to 249,001.

The annual rate of urban starts for apartments, condos and other types of multiple-unit housing projects fell 3.1 per cent to 184,759, while the pace of single-detached urban starts rose 7.1 per cent to 64,242.

CMHC estimated rural starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 23,175.

The six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 286,620 in July, down from 293,085 in June.