Canadian New Home starts dropped in July as the housing market across Canada slowed from previous records.

The July total of 186,500 units compared with a revised 215,900 annualized starts for June 2008.

Most economists were expecting a slowing of the housing markets and evidence of the softening markets are starting in the western provinces,

There were fewer starts for multiple-family units, that were down 20 per cent in July to 91,600 units, a drop of 20 per cent.

Single family units were down 6.6 per cent to a July total of 69,800 homes.

Price increased to 3.5 per cent from June 2007.