Eye On Housing
Author Archives
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Builder Confidence: High Demand Offsets Higher Costs – For Now
Strong buyer demand helped offset supply chain challenges and a surge in lumber prices as builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes inched up one point to 84 in February, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Lumber prices have been steadily rising this year and hit a record high in mid-February, adding thousands… Read More ›
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Construction Job Openings End 2020 Lower
Job openings in construction declined in December as hiring slowed, albeit with distinctions between residential and nonresidential construction. As detailed in the January employment report, there were 2,500 lost total construction sector jobs for the start of the year. Nonetheless, for home building and remodeling, sector employment is 27,600 positions higher than a year prior. Overall, hiring in the construction… Read More ›
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Gains for Housing Share of GDP
Housing has staged a dramatic turnaround since the Spring of 2020. Due to low mortgage interest rates, a renewed focus on the importance of home, an evolving geography of housing demand, and a lack of for-sale inventory, the housing sector has been a relative bright spot for the economy. For the fourth quarter, overall GDP growth continued a recovery at a… Read More ›
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Steady New Home Sales at End of 2020
After a surge in the pace of new home sales in the middle of the year, the monthly growth rate of newly built single-family home sales slowed at the end of 2020. Sales exceeded construction starts by a historic margin at the end of the summer. This necessitated an increase in starts and some slowing of sales. Nonetheless, the acceleration… Read More ›
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AD&C Loan Volume Fell Back in Third Quarter
Continuing a period of weakness that began at the end of 2019, the volume of residential construction lending posted a slight decline during the third quarter of 2020. This decline occurred, however, during a period of rising builder confidence and expansion of single-family home building. These data suggest that home builders were deleveraging during the market rebound of the second… Read More ›
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Builder Confidence Down on Rising Material Prices, Upsurge in COVID-19 Cases
Rising material costs led by a huge upsurge in lumber prices, along with a resurgence of the coronavirus across much of the nation pushed builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes down three points to 83 in January, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Despite the drop, builder sentiment remains at a strong… Read More ›
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Open Job Rate in Construction Steady
Job openings in construction remained steady in November as net job gains continued, albeit with distinctions between residential and nonresidential construction. As detailed in the December BLS employment data, over the past eight months job gains in residential construction have offset all of the jobs lost in March and April. Sector employment now stands higher than in February. In contrast, only… Read More ›
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Top Posts of 2020: Suburban Shift for Home Building
With the end of 2020 approaching and a vaccine now being deployed, NAHB’s Eye on Housing is reviewing the posts that attracted the most readers over the past, dramatic year — a year that saw housing emerge as a bright spot for an economy under stress. In December, the NAHB Economics team provided data from our Home Building Geography Index… Read More ›
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Top Posts of 2020: Federal Reserve Provides Stimulus — Including for Housing
With the end of 2020 approaching and a vaccine now being deployed, NAHB’s Eye on Housing is reviewing the posts that attracted the most readers over the past, dramatic year — a year that saw housing emerge as a bright spot for an economy under stress. In March, the NAHB Economics team reported on the quick and aggressive actions by… Read More ›
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Top Posts of 2020: Largest Four-Month Lumber Price Increase in 70 Years
With the end of 2020 approaching and a vaccine now being deployed, NAHB’s Eye on Housing is reviewing the posts that attracted the most readers over the past, dramatic year — a year that saw housing emerge as a bright spot for an economy under stress. In September, the NAHB Economics team examined the run-up in lumber costs that occurred… Read More ›