Eye On Housing
Author Archives
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Remodeling in 2016: Kitchens Reclaim Top Spot from Baths
May is National Home Remodeling Month. For the month’s first related post, we report on the most common types of remodeling projects performed by NAHB Remodelers in 2016. The results come from a special question added to NAHB’s Remodeling Market Index (RMI) survey for the first quarter of 2017. The results show kitchens edging out baths for the top spot… Read More ›
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Impact of the Duty on Canadian Lumber Announced April 25
On April 25, the Department of Commerce levied a 19.88% duty rate against Canadian softwood lumber exports to the United States. Due to “special circumstances,” the duties will be retroactive 90 days from the date that the rates are officially published in the Federal Register, likely back to the beginning of February. Five Canadian lumber producing companies will face specific… Read More ›
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Young Construction Workers Mean More Monitoring, Longer Projects
As described in a previous post, employment in the residential construction industry reached 2.68 million in January of this year. Although this is still well short of the 3.45 million at the peak of the boom in 2006, it nevertheless represents an increase of more than 700,000 jobs since the employment trough of the Great Recession in 2011. This raises… Read More ›
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The Average Builder Uses 10 Different Green Products and Practices
On average, single-family builders use 10.2 different green products or practices, and 22 percent always or almost always have their homes certified to a green standard, according to a recent NAHB survey. The survey consisted of special questions on the January survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. A total of 337 single-family builders responded to these questions, one… Read More ›
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Builders Satisfy Demand for Open Floor Plans
According to a recent NAHB article, open floor plans are popular among home buyers, and the design of new single-family homes tends to be, if anything, even more open. For example, in a 2015 NAHB survey, 70 percent of recent and prospective homebuyers said they preferred a home with either a completely or partially open kitchen-family room arrangement with 32 percent preferring… Read More ›
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In New England, Two-Thirds of New Homes Include Decks
Of the 714,500 single-family homes started in 2015, 64 percent included porches and 23 percent included decks, according to data from the Survey of Construction (which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and partially funded by HUD). NAHB tabulation of these data show that porches have become somewhat more common on new homes over the past decade. In 2005,… Read More ›
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Data Imply Most Homes Last More than a Century
Of the 132.42 million homes that existed in the U.S. in 2011, 98.8 percent (130.85 million) were still there two years later, according to a report published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2016. The report is called Components of Inventory Change: 2011-2013, and is based on the American Housing Survey (AHS). The AHS, funded by HUD and conducted in… Read More ›
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New Study Describes Characteristics of U.S. Subdivisions
A recent NAHB study shows that the median size of a subdivision in the United States is 25 total acres, and the median number of housing units in a subdivision is 50. The results are based on a survey of development projects currently under way or recently completed, conducted by NAHB’s Economics and Housing Policy Group in May 2016. NAHB… Read More ›
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Basements Didn’t Matter: New Homes Were Still Larger in 2015
A recent NAHB post shows that, after rising to a record high, the size of new single-family homes has leveled off and, as of the second quarter of 2016, is now trending downward slightly. Several things could be responsible. NAHB (and others) have emphasized a changing mix of repeat and first-time home buyers. Before focusing exclusively on this, however, it would be good… Read More ›
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More Builders Report Labor/Subcontractor Shortages
A survey of single-family builders conducted by NAHB in June 2016 shows that shortages of labor and subcontractors have become more widespread than they were a year ago. The survey consisted of special questions on labor and subcontractor availability that NAHB has periodically added to the instrument for the monthly NAHB/Well Fargo Housing Market Index. The questions have covered 9… Read More ›