Eye On Housing
The median lot size of a new single-family detached home sold in 2016 stands at 8,562 square feet, or just under one-fifth of an acre. This is a new record low and a small decline since 2015, when the median lot size fell under 8,600 square feet for the first time since Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC) started tracking… Read More ›
NAHB analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $520.9 billion in August, 0.5% up from downwardly revised July estimates. It was the fourth consecutive monthly increase after a dip in April. Hurricane Harvey that made landfall late in August did not have significant impacts on… Read More ›
NAHB analysis of the Survey of Construction (SOC) shows that 56.8% of all new single-family started in 2016 were built on slab foundations, 27.4% had a full/partial basement, and 14.5% selected a crawl space. The gap between slab and full/partial basement foundation adoption rates is growing: the share built on slabs steadily increased from 46.0% in 2000 to 56.8% in… Read More ›
The pace of single-family starts posted a slight gain in August, albeit over downwardly revised estimates of the rate of July construction. Nonetheless, the three-month moving average for single-family starts is at a post-recession high of 849,000 as the gradual recovery in home building continues. Total starts declined almost 1% in August to a 1.180 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to the… Read More ›
NAHB analysis of the 2016 Census Bureau Survey of Construction (SOC) data shows that reliance on non-conventional forms of financing varied across the United States, with its share exceeding 37% in the South Atlantic division but accounting for less than 20% of new single-family home starts in the East South Central and East North Central divisions. Nationwide, the share of… Read More ›
NAHB’s analysis of the most recent Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC) shows that custom home building registered declining market shares across most US regions in 2016. The sharpest drop in the custom home share of new single-family starts took place in the East South Central division, from 35% to 27%. The two exceptions are the Mountain and Pacific divisions… Read More ›
NAHB analysis of the Survey of Construction (SOC) shows that, nationally, there were 779,082 new single-family units started in 2016, 10% higher than 2015. According to the NAHB tabulation of data from the 2016 Survey of Construction, new single-family housing starts were divided into the nine Census divisions, including Pacific, Mountain, West North Central, West South Central, East North Central,… Read More ›
The 2016 Survey of Construction (SOC) from the Census Bureau shows that the average completion time of a single-family house is around 7.5 months, which usually includes almost a month from authorization to start and another 6.5 months to finish the construction. The timeline from authorization to completion, however, which is not consistent across the nation, depends on the housing… Read More ›
NAHB analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $523.1 billion in July, 0.8% up from upwardly revised June estimates. It was the third consecutive monthly increase after a dip in April. The total private residential construction spending was 11.6% higher than a year ago. The… Read More ›
The volume of residential construction loans increased by 1.2% during the second quarter of 2017, marking 17 consecutive quarters of growth. However, the growth rate for lending since the end of 2016 has slowed. Tight availability of acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) loans has been a limiting factor for home building growth, but easing credit conditions and a growing loan base have helped expand residential construction activity in a thin inventory environment. According… Read More ›