REALTORMag
Homebuyers may want to look more closely at the housing starts numbers, even if they don’t intend to buy new.
Housing starts, or the number of new homes that builders have begun construction on, tend to follow a seasonal pattern—increasing in the spring, peaking in the summer, receding in the fall, and dropping to their lowest levels in the winter.
An increase in housing starts should make for good news for homebuyers.
“Housing starts, when they are completed, add supply [and in turn] reduce upward pressure on new-home prices and may even reduce them,” says Andres Carbacho-Burgos, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics.