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Single home construction in Olds may be a little slow so far this year but town officials don't expect that to last long.

In the first half of 2006, 27 single family residences have been built compared to 42 at this time last year.

Housing in Olds is getting harder to find even though of the five undeveloped quarter sections remaining in the town, almost four of those are slated for residential development, said Darren Hycha, Olds' development officer.

"In some areas we are a little bit slower, in residential just for the fact that we don't have a lot of residential lots available that are currently developed," Hycha said.

"I think we are just in that lull right now where we've used up all our lots and we didn't have any more ready to go quite in the right time. We are having a year off here and in the next year we will have things going pretty good again."

Phase 2 of the Willow Point development will start later in the year as well as the first phase of the Vistas in the northwest part of town.

Hycha said those developments should balance out numbers by the end of the year.

Olds has averaged 58 single family residences over the last five years with a total of 62 being built in 2005 that accounted for $9.5 million of the town's $15 million in new construction.

Olds is already at $14 .7 million in overall construction this year.

A major reason for that will be the $53-million Community Learning Campus.

Construction on the first phase has already begun and is worth $5.5 million.

Another reason why Olds is sitting pretty after six months is commercial development.

The town is seeing its best growth since 2002 with 16 commercial permits issued totalling just over $2 million - more than double commerical development dollars four years ago.

Depending whether town council fast-tracks the huge commercial-residential project that is proposed for a quarter section abutting the Imperial Industrial Park, overall new construction dollars could potentially skyrocket even further.

The project calls for a "power centre" similar to those found in Red Deer and Edmonton that results in a combination of multi-family residences mixed with "big box" retail outlets.

Hycha wouldn't harbour a guess on the outcome of the proposal since town council still has to approve necessary bylaw amendments.

The developer has asked council to speed up the process in order to secure agreements with potential businesses.

A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 24 at council chambers.