Nation's Building News Online

A Message From Treasury Secretary John Snow to the NAHB Membership

To read this letter, click the MORE button … [ MORE ]

Building News From Coast to Coast

• Energy Efficient and Mighty Sturdy
• A Village Concept With Commuters in Mind
• Plots & Ploys: Artful Dodge?
• Rural-Friendly Design Drawing Praise for Parrish Development
• New Homes, New Flexibility With Floor Plans
• Slow-Growth Forces Oppose Nevada Initiative Changes
• State Mulls School Funding
• The New Investors

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Are You Controlling Your Exposure to Moisture, Mold and Fungus?
Structural Defects, Can They Happen to You?
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Builders Urged to Work With Conservationists

Home builders can do themselves and the environment some good by working voluntarily with conservation groups to reduce water and air pollution before federal regulators step in and require them to do it, William Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said on March 31 during the National Green Building Conference in Baltimore.

Bakers’s organization, whose membership over the past two decades has grown from a couple of hundred to more than 110,000, is fighting to save the Chesapeake Bay. Extending more than 200 miles from its headwaters  …  …[ MORE ]

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Housing Snapshot

Mortgage interest rates receded slightly last week as news from the war in Iraq turned positive and the news from the frontlines of the nation's economy continued to be gloomy. Although the unemployment rate remained at 5.8% in March, 108,000 jobs were lost for the month and 49,000 more jobs were lost in February than originally reported. American tanks moving into central Baghdad raise the possibility of higher stock prices and interest rates this week. [ MORE ]

Mortgage Interest Rates

30-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.79%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.06%
1-Year ARM: 3.82%

Housing Starts - Feb. 2003*

Total: 1.62 million
Single-Family Starts: 1.3 million
Multifamily Starts: 327,000

New Home Sales Feb. 2003*

854,000

Existing Home Sales Feb. 2003*

5.84 million

* Seasonally adjusted annual rate

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