WINSTON-SALEM – While the National Association of Home Builders predicts new home construction in the country will be down 30 percent this year, economists expect construction to be down only 25 percent in North Carolina.

But some builders have noticed the slowdown.

Richard DeHart of DeHart Custom Homes said that though some of his houses have been finished for months, they still haven’t been sold.

"Sales seem to be real slow in the area,” DeHart said. “[We] had some people out looking, but no real takers.”

He said he has a job building a garage, and other small projects to keep him busy, and he hopes the economy will turn around next year.

While housing starts are down in North Carolina, the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem reported that the state has seen a boom in recent years.

"We're on basically the same level as that new construction start number from about four or five years ago, so it's not terrible, but it's definitely in a slowdown position," Jerry Herman, executive vice president of the association, said.

Mitch Lowery of Mitch Lowery Construction and president of the Home Builders Association said that building should continue despite a drop in sales.

"You just can't shut the doors,” Lowery said. “You don't want to shut the doors. You've got people that have been working for you for years."

And experts say if contractors can still make money building homes, they will.

"As long as what they're going to get for the house is likely higher than what they've yet to spend, then it's a sensible decision for them to continue to build," Sherry Jarrell, professor of finance and economics at Wake Forest University, said. "In the long run, it makes more business sense to try to keep your people employed to try to keep moving those units.

The market favors buyers as both housing prices and interest rates have dropped dramatically.