Kimberly Adams

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Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air.

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This is Marketplace.

I'm Kimberly Adams.

The Census Bureau dropped some new housing numbers this morning.

Single-family housing starts at the beginning of this year were down 2.8 percent compared to December.

why new home building has been such a slog and what changes in construction loan interest rates could mean for the market going forward.

There are two big reasons why single-family starts have been slow, says Odetta Cushy at First American.

For buyers on the demand side, she says, well, mortgage rates have come down a little bit.

When we zoom out, we can still see it's a very challenging affordability environment.

And for builders on the supply side, she says things are expensive there too.

You have, you know, labor issues, so skilled trade shortages and wage pressures, lots, so scarcity of lots, laws, so zoning constraints and permitting delays, lending, more about that in a second.

and lumber, but really just materials, construction materials more broadly.

To cover these costs, Robert Dietz of the National Association of Home Builders says private single-family home developers typically get loans.

He says builders say if they could get access to more financing at a lower cost, they could build more.

And the cost of that financing, he says, is...