Home building up 7.2 percent in March
A construction worker begins work on building a new residential home in Springfield, Ill. Builders broke ground on more new homes in March, giving the weak housing market a slight boost at the start of the spring buying season. (April 18, 2011) Credit: AP
Builders broke ground on more new homes last month, giving the weak housing market a slight boost at the start of the spring buying season.
Home construction nationwide rose 7.2 percent in March from February to a seasonally adjusted 549,000 units, the Commerce Department said yesterday. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 11.2 percent after hitting a five-decade low in February.
Still, the building pace is far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy. And March's improvement came after construction fell in February to its second-lowest level on records dating back more than a half-century.
Millions of foreclosures have forced home prices down, and more foreclosures are expected this year.
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