Eye On Housing
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Joshua J. Miller, Ph.D., is a Housing Policy Economist with the National Association of Home Builders where his responsibilities include monitoring government policies relating to local economic development, impact fees, and energy policies. Dr. Miller conducts statistical and economic research on various homebuilding regulation and housing policy topics, including the economic impact of home building. His areas of responsibility include state and local finances, housing finance, and homeownership issues. Prior to joining NAHB, Dr. Miller was a research assistant at the University of Illinois – Institute of Government & Public Affairs. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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Immigrant Homeownership
Immigrants can have a large impact on housing demand. Research from NAHB in 2012 demonstrated that using the low end Census projections on net immigration (1.2 million annually), after 10 years new immigrants would occupy 2 million multifamily units and 1.2 million single-family homes. In addition, the Research Institute for Housing America projects that from 2010 to 2020, immigrants will account… Read More ›
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Gasoline Pushes Consumer Prices Higher in June
According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) press release, consumer prices increased in June 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis. Over the past twelve months, prices on expenditures made by urban consumers increased 2.1% before seasonal adjustments. The month-over-month increase in the all items index was driven by a large 3.3% increase in the gasoline index. The… Read More ›
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(In)stability in Special Trade Employment
NAHB tabulations of employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that nearly 1.4 million specialty trade (or subcontractor) employees left the industry from 2006 to 2011. In spite of the significant drop in the number of specialty trade employees observed in the BLS data on companies, annual statistics for specialty trade nonemployer firms (one-person firms) have been… Read More ›
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Residential Construction Spending up 7.5% from One Year Ago
The latest Census estimate of total private residential construction spending is 7.5% higher than one year ago. In particular, the release shows significant improvement in construction spending for the single-family and multifamily categories. From May 2013, on a 3-month moving average basis, single-family construction spending increased by 12.3% and multifamily construction spending increased by 33.0%. The current seasonally adjusted annual… Read More ›
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State and Local Tax Receipts Continue to Improve
Property taxes are the largest single source of state and local tax receipts, according to NAHB tabulations of the Census Bureau’s quarterly tax data. At 40.3%, property taxes represent a significantly larger share than the next largest sources: individual income taxes (28.1%) and sales taxes (27.2%). From the second quarter of 2013 through the end of the first quarter of… Read More ›
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Land Banking
Property tax delinquency increased dramatically during the great recession in many cities. In 2011, for example, the percentage of property taxes that went unpaid by the end of the year (same-year delinquency rate) was 20.2% in Cleveland, 20.1% in Detroit, 9.9% in St. Louis, and 9.0% in Philadelphia. By comparison, the 2006 same-year delinquency rate was just 7.6% in Detroit…. Read More ›
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Consumer Prices Increase Broadly in May
Consumer prices in May experienced the largest monthly increase since February 2013. According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer prices increased 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis. Year-over-year, before seasonal adjustments, prices on expenditures made by urban consumers increased 2.1%. The increase was broad, affecting many items found in the consumer basket such as… Read More ›
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County Level Permit Activity
The Census Bureau recently released annual estimates of building permits issued at the county level. In 2013, 1,807 counties and county equivalents saw an increase in the number of single family permits issued over the prior year while 858 saw a decrease. County equivalents include the 64 parishes in Louisiana, 16 boroughs in Alaska, and 42 independent cities. The map… Read More ›
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Equity Position of U.S. Households Improves
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ recently released statistics on the financial accounts of U.S. households. The release shows continued improvement in the financial position of U.S. households with real estate. In fact, the household real estate equity position improved to a level last reached in the second quarter of 2007. According to NAHB tabulations of the quarterly series, the… Read More ›
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Snapshot of Local HBA Economic and Housing Statistics
NAHB recently released an on-line tool that provides economic and housing statistics for all local associations. The tool allows users to easily compare local area statistics to other associations, state and national figures. In addition to providing members with information on the local market, executive officers may find this tool helpful when responding to requests from local media. The statistics… Read More ›