Homes sales have slowed dramatically in the last month, but prices were very hot at the beginning of the year, and the expectation is that they will not fall dramatically. CNBC's Diana Olick reports.

Homebuilders are hurting.

U.S. home construction in March endured its worst monthly decline since 1984 as housing starts fell by over 22% from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Homebuilder confidence was also pummeled, with one key indicator seeing the biggest drop in its 35-year history.

Home construction stocks have reflected the weakness. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) and SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) are down this week, the ITB falling over 4.5% and the XHB losing nearly 3.5%. Year to date, the ITB is down almost 28% while the XHB is down over 28%.

Some market watchers including Chantico Global CEO Gina Sanchez expect the pain to continue so long as measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus remain in place.

“I think the general feeling and consensus is that supply chains and just the ability to build inventory right now is really challenged,” Sanchez told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. “Until the mitigation efforts are kind of removed and we have the ability to be able to walk in and see homes, we’re probably going to see continued slowdown in this market.”

Todd Gordon, managing partner at Ascent Wealth Partners, said investors could still find some attractive stocks within the two main homebuilding ETFs, adding that he likes the ITB’s technical setup.

While the ITB’s holdings are roughly 70% construction and homebuilding stocks, “there is still a large component in home improvement services, specifically Home Depot,” Gordon said. “We have about 10% in Home Depot and Lowe’s and other services like that. So, we hold Home Depot in our portfolios at Ascent and I view this as a nice place to hang out.”

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