Bloomberg has the housing starts data. "Builders started work last month on the smallest number of new houses in a year, as rising mortgage rates and record inventories of unsold homes discouraged new projects. Housing starts declined 7.8 percent in March to an annual rate of 1.96 million, from 2.126 million in February."

"Building permits, a sign of future construction, fell 5.5 percent to an annual rate of 2.059 million from 2.179 million."

"Builders are breaking ground on fewer projects after new home sales declined in three of the last four months, falling in February by the most in nine years. 'It's clear that the housing market is cooling,' (economist) Joel Naroff said before the report. 'There are areas of the country where we are going to see pretty sharp declines in construction and in housing prices.'"

"Starts fell in all regions of the country. They decreased 16 percent in the West to an annual rate of 486,000, 8.2 percent in the Midwest to 291,000, 4.8 percent in the South to 994,000 and 0.5 percent in the Northeast to 189,000."

"'Buyers are going to be in a sweet spot in about three to six months,' said (economist) Anthony Chan. 'The speculators who are still holding properties will be panicking by then as their carrying costs mount. It won't be a bloodbath, but that's when prices should be at their lowest.'"

"Federal Reserve policymakers have been encouraging banks to tighten lending standards in recent months and make less use of tools favored by speculative home buyers, such as adjustable-rate and no-interest mortgages. These loans become more costly as the federal funds target rate increases."

"'We're seeing that the investment side of housing looks like the edge is coming off because the carrying cost of doing these investments is getting higher,' Federal Reserve Governor Susan Bies said."

"KB Home reported a 12 percent decrease in orders in the December-February period. The decline was the first in four years at KB Home. 'Some housing markets have moderated from the over-heated and, in some cases, speculative pace of growth of the past few years,' Bruce Karatz, CEO said."