Housing starts are down, builder confidence is up

摘要

Nationwide housing starts declined 6.2 percent in Augustas home builders continued to cut back on new construction to scale back inventories and help pave the way for housing market recovery, according to figures released in September by the U.S. Commerce Department.rn"Our latest builder surveys have indicated a substantial improvement in builders' sales expectations for the next six months, in part because of the newly enacted tax credit," said David Seiders, NAHB chief economist. "Meanwhile, the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the ongoing turmoil on Wall Street actually havernproduced downward pressures on key home mortgage rates," which should help buyers, he said.