Eye On Housing
Growing affordability concerns resulted in builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes falling eight points to a level of 60 in November on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Despite the sharp drop, builder sentiment still remains in positive territory. Builders report that they continue to see signs of consumer demand for new… Read More ›
Only about 2 out of every 10 prospective home buyers (people looking to buy a home in the next year) expect the search for a home to get easier in the months ahead. The majority, about 7 out of 10, instead think house hunting will get harder or stay about the same. This opinion is shared among buyers of all… Read More ›
The total market share of non-site built single-family homes was 3.3% of single-family completions in 2017, according to Census Bureau Survey of Construction data and NAHB analysis. This share is expected to rise in 2018 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… Read More ›
According to the Housing Trends Report (HTR)* for the third quarter of 2018, only 13% of adults are planning to purchase a home in the next 12 months. Most of these prospective buyers (58%) report this is the first time in their lives they would be buying a home. Planning to Buy a Home in Next 12 Months: Prospective Home Buyers… Read More ›
A modest increase in interest rates and home prices kept housing affordability at a 10-year low in the third quarter of 2018, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). In all, 56.4 percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of July and end of September were affordable to families earning… Read More ›
The count of unfilled jobs in the construction sector pulled back in September, off a upwardly revised August estimate that marked a post-recession high. According to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction sector jobs decreased to 278,000 in September. The August estimate of open construction jobs was revised up… Read More ›
In a recent NAHB survey, 65 percent of builders reported that the overall supply of developed lots in their areas was low to very low. This is up only one percent from June 2017, but significantly higher than the 42 percent posted in September 2012. The survey consisted of special questions appended to the instrument for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing… Read More ›
According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), 60.7 percent of all homes started in 2017 were built within a community or homeowner’s association. The Census Bureau defines community or homeowner’s associations as “formal legal entities created to maintain common areas of a development and to enforce private deed restrictions; these organizations are usually created when the… Read More ›
Looking at single-family homes started in 2017, the median prices per square foot, excluding improved lot values, range from $155 for contractor-built homes in the Pacific division to $86 for speculatively built homes in the East South Central division. The median sale and contract prices per square foot are up across most divisions. The most significant gains are registered in… Read More ›
With the release of the first estimate of third quarter 2018 GDP growth (a 3.5% annual growth rate), housing’s share of gross domestic product (GDP) fell slightly to 14.9%. The home building and remodeling component – residential fixed investment – also decreased slightly, falling to 3.25% Housing-related activities contribute to GDP in two basic ways. The first is through residential fixed investment (RFI). RFI is… Read More ›