Housing starts in the Edmonton region for May surpassed May 2010 levels, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Wednesday.

CMHC said there were 1,009 homes started in May, up from 989 a year earlier.

It’s the highest level of monthly activity since April 2010, the federal agency said.

But for the year to date, housing starts totalled 3,332, down from 4,428 in the first five months of 2010.

There were 546 single-detached homes started in May, up slightly from 540 a year earlier. It’s the first year-over-year gain since September.

For the year to date, builders started 1,783 single-detached units, down 30 per cent from 2,554 year-over-year.

CMHC senior market analyst Michael Fabiyi said the number of completed and unabsorbed homes remains higher than last year, but the total supply of single-detached homes has declined over recent months.

“This, along with the higher pace of absorptions recorded thus far should encourage increased new home production moving forward,” he said.

In the multi-family market, there were 463 starts in May, up from 449 a year earlier.

In the first five months of 2011, multi-family starts totalled 1,549. That’s down 17 per cent from January to May 2010.

Across Alberta, housing starts in the seven largest centres dropped eight per cent year-over-year to 1,948 in May

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