Hopes that the US housing market is bottoming out have been dashed after the number of new homes being built fell to a record low in April.

Construction data from the US Commerce Department showed that so-called “housing starts” are now at their lowest since records began in 1959.

In recent months, several surveys have pointed to a bottoming out in the US housing market – the collapse of which triggered the current recession – but these latest figures appear to put paid to such a theory.

Financial Times