Homebuilders in U.S. Continue to Fall Further Behind: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- America’s homebuilders are struggling to keep up with demand. While 510,000 single-family houses were under construction in April, the most since mid-2008, there were 91,000 dwellings authorized but waiting to be started, also a new expansion high, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday. “Capacity constraints may be responsible for the leveling off in groundbreaking activity,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, wrote in a note. “Builders have been complaining for a long time about labor shortages” and more recently, building materials costs have jumped.

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