Housing starts plummet in February

Housing starts dropped 22.5% in February, falling to 479,000 from the revised January rate of 618,000, according to Calculated Risk.

The newest figure is barely above the all-time low of 477,000 set in April 2009. Single-family starts also experienced a sharp decline, falling 11.8% to 375,000, which was the lowest it has been since early 2009.

However, this may actually be good news, since starts could remain low until more of the excess inventory of existing homes is absorbed.