On average across the country, there were seven per cent fewer housing starts in March, compared to February, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. If you break it down though, the number of starts in communities of 10,000 or over rose by 16 per cent in March, compared to the same month last year. Most of that was multi-unit starts, which were up 19 per cent.

In Saskatchewan, housing starts in single family homes rose by 36 per cent from March of last year to this year in cities of 10,000 or more, and in multi-unit homes, the increase was 4 per cent. When you factor in all housing starts, not just in the larger centres, there was an eight per cent rise. Breaking it down further, in Saskatoon, housing starts for single detached homes rose by two per cent in the same period and 44 per cent for multi-unit homes.