People seem to be building homes in either Armstrong or Spallumcheen, but not both at the same time.

That’s the view of Armstrong Mayor Chris Pieper when looking over October’s building inspection statistics released by the Regional District of North Okanagan.

There were 14 housing units started worth nearly $4.5 million in the city through the end of October, compared to nine in the township with a value of $3.7 million.

In 2013, through October, there were 20 housing starts in Spallumcheen valued at more than $9.4 million, compared to just two in Armstrong worth nearly 41.9 million.

Armstrong’s numbers in 2014 have been buoyed by development in new subdivisions that have been approved by the city.

“The development makes a big increase to our local downtown, local merchants and the economic impact is huge,” said Pieper.

“The last two years, when there has been sort of an economic crunch,  there have been 29 new homes built in Spallumcheen and 16 in Armstrong. That does make a big impact.”

Development is on the rise in the city, township, City of Enderby, Village of Lumby and the regional district’s electoral areas.

Last year at this time, there were 59 housing units started valued at $22.7 million in all of the jurisdictions. This year, there have been 84 starts valued at nearly $34 million.