Housing starts plunge 17.2%, raising recession fears
Zachary Halaschak
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The number of housing starts tumbled in March, an indication that the housing market is taking a hit and may be falling into a recession.
Housing starts measure the change in the number of new residential buildings that began construction. Starts fell 17.2% from March 2022 to this past month, according to a Tuesday report from the Census Bureau. They are now at 1.42 million. From February to March, they fell 0.8%.
Additionally, permits to build, which are seen as a proxy for future construction, decreased/increased by 8.8% in March.
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Tuesday’s report comes as the Federal Reserve’s campaign to slow spending across the economy by hiking interest rates has taken a major toll on the national housing market.
The rate on the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage soared from just over 3% at the start of 2022 to over 7% in November. It has since drifted down following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to 6.27%.
In other housing news, sales of new homes increased slightly from January to February, a sign that buyers might be reentering the market amid lower mortgage rates, according to data released late last month by the Census Bureau.
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New home sales in February increased from the month before, rising 1.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000. Nevertheless, sales were 19% lower than in February 2022.
The Fed once again hiked interest rates last month by a modest quarter of a percentage point, even despite the uncertainty from the collapses of SVB and Signature Bank. That ultimately means more pressure on mortgage rates this year.