Eye On Housing
Following two consecutive monthly increases, single-family starts fell by 9.1 percent over the month of June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 858,000, according to a joint release by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, over the quarter, starts of single-family houses was about flat, rising by 1.2 percent to 900,000. This is… Read More ›
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes remained unchanged at a solid 68 reading in July on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Builders are optimistic about housing market conditions, basing their confidence on continued solid demand for single-family homes. However, persistent increases in construction costs make it increasingly challenging to produce homes… Read More ›
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, headline consumer prices, grew over the month of June, but at a slower pace than in May. The monthly slowdown partly reflected a decline in energy prices, electricity and utility (piped) gas specifically, although food prices accelerated over the month. Excluding energy and food prices, “core” inflation held… Read More ›
The count of unfilled jobs in the construction sector was flat in May, 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 243,000. The post-recession high count of open, unfilled construction jobs was 255,000 in July of last year…. Read More ›
With the release of the final estimate of first quarter 2018 GDP growth (2% growth rate), housing’s share of gross domestic product (GDP) declined slightly to 15.3%. The home building and remodeling component – residential fixed investment – held steady at 3.5%. Housing-related activities contribute to GDP in two basic ways. The first is through residential fixed investment (RFI). RFI is effectively the… Read More ›
Of the 729,000 single-family detached homes started in 2017, a little over 18,000 (2.5 percent) had three or more stories, according to NAHB tabulation of recently released Census data. The data come from the Survey of Construction (SOC, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau with partial funding from HUD). Although the SOC has always collected data on 3-story single-family homes, the Census Bureau began publishing information on them only recently. Traditionally, the… Read More ›
The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that mortgage rates on purchases of newly built homes rose by seven basis points over the month of May 2018 to 4.51 percent, marking the seventh consecutive monthly increase. However, information compiled by Freddie Mac suggests that mortgage rates may have taken a breather in June. Despite the two basis points decline in mortgage… Read More ›
Sales of new single-family homes rose by 6.7 percent in May to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 689,000 according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A downward revision to the sales pace in April, from 662,000 to 646,000, partly contributed to the increase in sales. Regionally,… Read More ›
In a recent NAHB survey, over 40 percent of builders said construction costs in general are causing home buyers to hold back from purchasing a new home, and over 90 percent said that lumber prices specifically are hurting affordability. The results are consistent with yesterday’s post, which described a surge in the number of builders reporting a shortage of framing lumber. The new results… Read More ›
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 ›