WASHINGTON — The nation's housing market should continue to provide solid support to the U.S. economy throughout 2003 and beyond, and will likely set a new record for sales of new single-family homes this year, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported. The trade group has revised upward its forecast for 2003 sales of new single-family homes to 985,000 units, approximately 1 percent above last year's record-breaking 973,000 units.
"For home builders, the early part of this year was complicated by unusually large swings in weather conditions and uncertainties related to the buildup to war with Iraq — yet sales of new homes held near a million-unit annual pace and residential fixed investment accounted for about one-third of total GDP growth in the first quarter," stated Kent Conine, NAHB’s president. "Home sales actually have strengthened in the wake of the war, and are now on track to beat our previous forecasts and support the economy over the balance of the year.