Single-family housing starts in March were at their highest since 2022, a fast start to the construction year that could bring more supply to home markets that are still painfully expensive.

The new data from surveys was released April 29 by the U.S. Census Bureau, with information from February and March delayed by issues with the federal government shutdown.  

Nationwide, there were 88,900 single-family housing starts in March, the most for that month since March 2022, when there were 100,100. At the same time, however, February numbers were revised down to 66,900, the lowest for that month since 2019.

A slow February followed by a busy March for housing starts could mean that weather warmed up later than usual in much of the United States, and also that optimism about interest rates led builders to break ground in March — before the Iran war started another round of rate increases, according to an analysis by the Shovel to Keys home construction trends site.  

New permits for single-family homes also fell compared with March 2025, even as housing starts jumped, a sign that the pipeline for new building may be drying up.  

It makes sense that builders might be cautious given the current economic and political climate, wrote Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner in an April 29 report. “Builder margins are being squeezed by rising material costs that stem from today’s geopolitical uncertainty on top of the already-high costs of land and labor.”

It was the best March for single-family starts since 2021 in the Northeast and the Midwest, the best since 2022 in the West, and the best since 2024 in the South. The South has most of the single-family starts – 50,000 out of the total 88,900 nationwide.  

Sales of existing homes fell 1% in March from last year and the median price increased 1.4% to $403,100, according to an April 13 report from the National Association of Realtors. Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, in a statement, said fewer people can afford homes because of an uncertain economy and also a low supply of homes for sale. 

“Inventory remains a major constraint on the market,” Yun wrote. “An additional 300,000 to 500,000 homes for sale would help bring the market closer to normal conditions and allow consumers to make purchase decisions without feeling rushed.”