Eye On Housing
Shortages of framing lumber are now more widespread than at any time since NAHB began tracking the issue in a consistent way in 1994, according to results from the May 2018 survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Over 30 percent of single-family builders responding to the survey’s special questions in May reported a shortage of framing lumber, outdistancing the other 22… Read More ›
Existing-home sales decreased 0.4% in May to a level 3.0% below a year ago, and sales have now decreased year-over-year for three consecutive months. The first-time buyer share of 31% was down from 33% last month and a year ago. The National Association of Realtors reported that 58% of homes sold last month were on the market less than a… Read More ›
Total housing starts increased in May with gains in both the single-family and multifamily sectors. Starts increased 5% month-over-month to a 1.35 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to the joint data release from the Census Bureau and HUD. This pace is a post-recession high. The rate of single-family starts was 3.9% higher in May, reaching a 936,000 annual rate…. Read More ›
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes fell two points to 68 in June on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The decline was due in large part to sharply elevated lumber prices, although sentiment remains on solid footing. Improved economic growth, continued job creation and solid housing demand should spur additional single-family… Read More ›
Regulation imposed by all levels of government (whether local, state or federal) accounts for 32.1 percent of the cost of an average multifamily development, according to a new study conducted jointly by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). The study is based primarily on a survey of multifamily developers from both organizations. The results… Read More ›
As was widely expected, the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC), the monetary policy making arm of the Federal Reserve, raised the target federal funds rate to a range of 1.75 percent to 2.00 percent from a range of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent. Going forward, the median projection of the federal funds rate at the end of this year rose,… Read More ›
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that consumer inflation rose by 0.2 percent in May, similar to its growth rate in April. Both food and energy prices decelerated over the month, but the slowdown in these items was offset by an acceleration in core CPI to 0.2 percent, from 0.1 percent in April. Over the year, headline inflation climbed… Read More ›
According to the most recent release of the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), half of payroll workers in construction earn more than $45,820. In comparison, the US median wage is below $37,700. The OES publishes wages for close to 380 occupations in construction. Out of these, only 54 are construction trades. The other industry… Read More ›
The United States Post Office has been attempting to reduce or eliminate sidewalk and curbside delivery of mail to individual homes, especially in new subdivisions. Instead, the Post Office now wants to deliver mail primarily to centralized or “cluster” mail boxes, each serving multiple homes in a development. So far, implementation of this policy has varied across the country, as local post offices… Read More ›
The count of unfilled jobs in the construction sector was effectively unchanged in April, remaining near post-Great Recession high levels. According to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction sector jobs came in at 232,000. The post-recession high count of open, unfilled construction jobs was 255,000 in July of last… Read More ›