Housing starts, a measure of new home construction, was down 17.2% from a year ago, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. After surging in February following five consecutive months of falling, March housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.420 million, down from the revised February estimate of 1.432 million. Single‐family housing starts in March rose 2.7% from the revised February figure, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 861,000.
413 million. “March had its fair share of economic uncertainly with news of failing banks, which may have spooked some buyers,” said Kelly Mangold of RCLCO Real Estate Consulting. “However, as spring home selling season begins, it is encouraging that interest rates remained stable, and even dropped toward the end of the month.