Small Home Starts Gain Shows Lack of U.S. Construction Vigor

Housing starts rose less than forecast in March from the weakest pace in more than a year, underscoring a lack of vigor in homebuilding that held back the U.S. economy.

Work began on 926,000 houses at an annualized rate, up 2 percent from February when bad winter weather prompted a 15.3 percent plunge, figures from the Commerce Department in Washington showed Thursday. Starts were less than the most pessimistic estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists and reflected slowdowns in the West and South.