Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that June’s privately-owned single-family housing starts dropped 5.3 percent from May to hit a new record low.

Single-family housing starts fell to 647,000 nationwide, slipping 5.3 percent from the prior record low set last month. Overall, the number of housing units started was 43.0 percent below last year’s levels, falling to the second-lowest levels in 26 years.

Total housing starts, including multi-family homes, actually increased 9.1 percent from last month, although this rise is due to a new set of construction codes enacted in New York City.

In the south, single-family starts fell 4.4 percent from April to a level 30.6 percent below last year.

While the figures are disappointing, they’re hardly surprising. It’s at least the sixth-straight month of record low single-family starts.

With potential buyers finding it increasingly difficult to find mortgage financing, increasing numbers of existing homes for sale, and REOs swelling an already-glutted inventory of properties on the market, builders are having to cut back on production in an attempt to bring supply down in balance with an ever-falling demand.

For everyday investors in single-family residential real estate, less competition from developers and builders is a good thing.

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“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” Bernard Baruch, originally uploaded by detta.