Inman News

Starts are down 14.2% year-over-year.

Housing starts fell 0.3 percent between February and March and dropped 14.2 percent year-over-year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Housing and Urban Development, released Friday.

In total, 1,139,000 housing starts were recorded. Building permits for private homes fell by 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1,291,000. Completions, meanwhile, dropped 1.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1,313,000.

Neither starts, completions or building permits experienced any growth since the previous month.

U.S. Census Bureau

With few exceptions, housing starts have fallen steadily since last year. As low inventory and growing home values increased the number of people looking for new homes, construction has consistently failed to keep up with growing demand.

“The year-over-year decline in single-family residential housing starts is a concern given the increasing demand from millennial home buyers for this type of construction,” said Odeta Kushi, First American Deputy chief economist, in a statement.