The mild winter weather all across the country has created a record for new housing starts in January, reports Reuters. The number is expected to be a blip because of the weather and analysts are still saying that the housing industry will face a national slowdown in 2006.

The Commerce Department said January housing starts climbed to an annual rate of 2.276 million units and the government also revised the December number saying more houses were built in that month than had been reported.

Construction of new single-family homes increased 12.8 percent while multifamily housing starts surged 21.9 percent. The biggest jump and most of the record came in the Northeast and the Midwest where the better weather could make the most difference. Starts jumped 16.9 percent in the West.

Permits for future construction posted an unexpected increase, up 6.8 percent from December. Economists had predicted that permits would decline. Still, if the mortgage rate keeps going up as new Fed chairman Ben Bernanke seems to promise, then housing will have to slow down.