Weather Cools Down Home Starts a Bit in February Unusually cold and wet weather in the South and West helped cool the seasonally adjusted annual pace of new-home construction in February to 1.855 million units. However, that was still above the total 1.848 million units started in 2003, which was the highest number of housing starts in 26 years. The rate of new home construction in February fell 4% below January's upwardly revised rate of 1.932 million, but was 13.1% above the level recorded a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported last Tuesday. “Builders continued to adjust their new production to a more sustainable level after the surge of late 2003,” said NAHB President Bobby Rayburn. “But builders remain very confident about the market, and we expect to maintain a very healthy pace through the coming months.” Despite some weather-related problems last month, NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders, said that market conditions remained healthy. “The interest rate structure is even more favorable than earlier in the year, and with house price performance remaining solid and continued increases in household formations, we expect housing to remain strong,” he said. | 
