WASHINGTON-Housing starts totaled 590,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis in September, up 0.5 percent from August, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
However, the September total was still 28.2 percent down from September of 2008. Joe Robson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, attributed September’s flat performance to caution on the part of homebuilders. “On top of the fact that it is nearly impossible to obtain construction financing for new units, there are widespread concerns about what will happen to demand with the expiration of the $8,000 first-time home-buyer tax credit at the end of November,” Robson said in an NAHB statement.
The association has been a persistent advocate of extending the tax credit, and called upon the U.S. Congress to do so again in the statement.
The South was the only one of the four regions tracked in this data to post an increase in starts last month, with a 7.5 percent pickup. Both the Northeast and the West registered double-digit dropoffs.