As efforts continue across the United States to try and bring the nation out of its worst housing crisis in decades, severe winter blizzards particularly in the north and the south-east, ate into that effort with February recording a 5.9% decline in housing starts.

A reliable indicator of the nation's economy, the Government is keen on seeing the housing sector emerge from its current slump and start significant growth in order to help put the American economy back on the road to prosperity. To this end the Federal Policy makers are likely to keep the interest rates close to zero.

The increasing foreclosures are not helping the cause. Rising prices and cluttered inventories are keeping the construction on the low. This has been reflected in the decrease in building permits which further declined 1.6 per cent to an annual rate of 612,000 following a 4.7 per cent fall in January.

According to Ellen Zentner, senior U. S. macroeconomist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in New York, "Housing has now got enough support that it has stabilized. With or without support, the housing recovery will be slow going".