The latest report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shows that builders are still seeing a slowed pace in new production.

The NAHB speculates that this is a form of "aggressive inventory management."

Only the Midwest saw housing start gains -- up 10 percent. The South and West each saw 8.2 percent declines. The Northeast saw an unprecendented 30.4 percent decline, though those numbers were "skewed by a building code change in New York City that caused an unusually large fluctuation in multifamily activity for the Northeast region."

"Though some may be inclined to focus only on the negative angle of this report, there is definitely a bright side," said Sandy Dunn, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Point Pleasant, W.Va. "The actions that home builders are taking right now to keep a lid on new production are slowly but surely helping to bring supply and demand back into balance and put us on the road to a much healthier housing market."

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Published: August 21, 2008

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