Housing starts in Canada stayed strong for seven years from 2002 through 2008. They continued to stay elevated even in the face of deteriorating prospects for the economy as world growth was winding down. Forecasters were expecting a decline in starts much earlier in the cycle. That did not happen because of enduring and unrealistic optimism. Now the cycle has turned and the swing has become exaggerated. Starts in Canada in April 2009 were an excessively low 117,000 units.