The National Association of Home Builders is reporting that production of single-family homes is unchanged, despite falling housing starts.

"Today's numbers are right on target with NAHB's forecast, which anticipates that housing starts will bottom out in the second quarter, after new-home sales have stabilized," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Single-family starts remained virtually unchanged over the past three months, indicating that we are closing in on a bottom. Multifamily starts – which tend to bounce around from month to month -- were responsible for the decline in total starts as they readjusted following a substantial gain in February."

Crowe noted that while builders have been seeing more sales office traffic and fielding more calls in recent weeks as consumers respond to historically affordable home buying conditions, many continue to grapple with a severe credit crunch for acquisition, development and construction financing (AD&C). "A substantial recovery in housing of the kind that's required to help get the national economy back on its feet will not happen until the logjam in AD&C lending has been broken," he cautioned.

Total housing starts were down 10.8 percent and multifamily starts were down 29 percent in March. The only region seeing a rise in starts was the Midwest, up 16 percent.