Mild weather leads to jump in housing starts: CMHC

There were 30 single detached housing starts in Greater Sudbury in the past three months, the most in the first quarter of the year since 1997, according to statistics released April 12 by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

There were 20 housing starts in March, and 10 in the first two months of the year, bringing the total to 30. For the quarter, housing starts have nearly doubled compared to last year, when there were just eight starts.

“Building activity got off to a strong start in the first quarter,” Warren Philp, the CMHC's northern Ontario market analyst, said in a press release. “Milder than normal weather in March undoubtedly has contributed to the quick start to housing starts.”

In North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, preliminary housing starts are also up over the first quarter of 2009, while Timmins has not yet witnessed its first housing starts. Like Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay's single detached housing starts were higher than any first quarter since 1997.