Eye On Housing
The total market share of non-site built single-family homes was 3% of single-family completions in 2018, according to Census Bureau Survey of Construction data and NAHB analysis. This share is expected to rise moderately in 2019 and in the years ahead, due to the ongoing labor shortage in the residential construction sector and the need to lift labor productivity amid declining housing affordability…. Read More ›
The Federal Reserve reduced the target range for the key, short-term federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a top rate of 1.75% at the conclusion of its October Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. This was the third cut in 2019, almost fully reversing a set of increases enacted in 2018. The FOMC views these enacted reductions as… Read More ›
After declines for six consecutive quarters, the home building component of gross domestic product (GDP) increased during the third quarter of 2019. This gain was due to the housing rebound that has taken hold since the spring, with the pace of single-family permits rising since April and the rate of single-family starts increasing since May. The overall housing share of… Read More ›
The median lot size of a new single-family detached home sold in 2018 stands at 8,567 square feet, or just under one-fifth of an acre. This is just 7 square feet larger but statistically not different from the 2017 median. In 2015, the median lot size fell under 8,600 square feet for the first time since Census Bureau’s Survey of… Read More ›
Contracts for new, single-family home sales inched down 0.7% in September to a 701,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate according to estimates from the joint release of HUD and the Census Bureau. The decline came off a downwardly revised August estimate, which was decreased from an initial reading of 713,000 to a new estimate of 706,000. Year-over-year, the September estimate is… Read More ›
According to estimates from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and Commerce Department, single-family starts edged up in September, consistent with recent gains for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). However, the headline measure of total housing starts was down 9.4% for the month due to a large decline in the volatile multifamily sector. Single-family starts increased 0.3% to… Read More ›
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes rose three points to 71 in October, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Sentiment levels are at their highest point since February 2018 and have risen 13 points since the start of 2019. The housing rebound that began in the spring continues, supported… Read More ›
Over the first eight months of 2019, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 576,798. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is a 3.7% decline over the August 2018 level of 599,117. Year-to-date ending in August, single-family permits reported declines in three out of the four regions. Northeast was the only region to post a growth… Read More ›
Wood framing remains the most dominant construction method for single-family homes in the U.S., according to NAHB analysis of Census Bureau data. For 2018 completions, 93% of new homes were wood-framed. Another 7% were concrete homes, and less than half a percent were steel-framed. These shares have remained fairly stable over the last five years. In absolute terms, 778,000 single-family… Read More ›
Data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) indicate that construction job openings increased in August. The estimated number of job openings in the construction sector increased to 379,000 after reaching a post-Great Recession high of 434,000 in April. The August 2019 count of unfilled jobs represents a year-over-year gain relative to the 315,000 estimated unfilled construction jobs… Read More ›