When there are too few homes for sale, the quickest solution is to build more homes. New home construction offers buyers more options and helps alleviate upward pressure on prices of existing homes. In other words, it's exactly what the housing market needs right now, since the inventory of homes for sale remains well below its pre-pandemic norm. Fortunately, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it looks like home builders are on the case. In fact, new residential construction statistics show the number of new, single-family homes that began construction in July was 6.7 percent higher than the month before. That's a significant mid-summer surge and an encouraging sign for shoppers of both new and existing homes. It also puts single-family housing starts nearly 10 percent above where they were last year at the same time. Regionally, the data shows home building strongest in the West and Midwest, with the Northeast and South both seeing month-over-month declines.
