Notching their best year since 2008, the nation’s biggest builders took advantage of an improving economy and a better housing market to find revenue in new places.
Compared with the first quarter of 2013, the single-family index increased 4 points to a level of 50, which is the 10th consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvements.
Sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 14.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000 units in March, according to data from HUD and the Census Bureau.
Nationwide housing production rose 2.8 percent above an upwardly revised February rate of 920,000 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000 units in March.