WASHINGTON (AP) - Home construction in the United States is all but coming to a halt.
Americans are on track to buy fewer new homes than in any year since the government began keeping data almost a half-century ago. Sales are now just half the pace of 1963 - even though there are 120 million more people in the United States now.
The sliding sales show just how far the housing market has fallen since the bubble burst four years ago. And they're a blow to the economy recovery as it draws strength from other places.
Diminished sales have driven the median price of a new home down to about $202,000, the lowest since 2003. If the sluggish sales continue, analysts say, small homebuilders will fold, meaning less competition as the market improves and higher prices later.
Sales of new homes plunged in February to an annual rate of 250,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was the third straight monthly drop. The pace is far below the pace economists say is healthy, about 700,000 a year.
Last year, 323,000 new homes were sold - the worst year on record and the fifth straight year of declines. Economists don't expect this year to be any better and say it could take two years or more before sales return to a healthy pace.
In 1963, when the U.S. population was about 190 million - compared with today's nearly 310 million - far more new homes were sold: 560,000.
New homes have accounted for just 5 percent of all sales so far this year. They typically represent closer to 15 percent. There were just 183,000 new homes available for sale in February, the smallest supply in four decades.
The median price of a new home is now percent higher than that of a resold home, twice the typical markup in a healthy economy.
Builders have responded by scaling back. In February, they broke ground on only about 40 percent of the number of homes they typically do in normal markets.
That decline in activity is weighing down the construction industry, which in the past has fueled economic recoveries. It's also slowing the broader economy. Each new home creates an average of three jobs for a year and $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
People are still looking at new homes, builders say. But many would-be buyers say they can't justify the cost.
For starters, it's cheaper to buy used - especially if you can get a foreclosed home or a short sale, when lenders let homeowners sell for less than they owe on their mortgage.
Banks are imposing tougher standards for loans and requiring bigger down payments. And many people are nervous about entering the market, fearful that home prices have yet to reach the bottom.