It’s getting hard to find lots to build homes on – and that’s keeping the U.S. housing market from returning to full health, according to a new NAHB survey.
"In our August 2013 survey, 59 percent of builders reported that the supply of lots in their markets was low or very low -- up from 43 percent September of last year, and the largest low supply percentage we've seen since we began conducting these surveys in 1997," said National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist David Crowe. "One reason is that many residential developers left the industry, abandoned certain markets or simply stopped buying land and developing lots during the downturn."