After souring significantly in the final quarter of 2022, buyers’ expectations of housing availability edged up slightly in the first quarter of 2023, with 26% expecting the home search to get easier in the months ahead, just ahead of the 24% a quarter earlier. Despite the mild improvement, buyers’ perceptions of housing availability remain well…
Despite a housing market slowdown but reflecting persistent long-term labor challenges, wages in construction continue to rise, often outpacing and exceeding typical earnings in other industries. According to the latest Current Employment Statistics (CES) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), average hourly earnings (AHE) in construction vary greatly across 43 states that reported…
NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing report published by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the share of new home sales backed by FHA loans jumped from 8.4% to 11.7% in the first quarter of 2023. It is the largest share since 2007 but remains 30% lower than the post-Great…
Interest for new home construction was essentially unchanged between the final quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, as the share of prospective buyers looking to buy a newly built home barely edged from 20% to 21%. Meanwhile, the share interested in existing homes dropped from 39% to 37% during this period, while…
Lower mortgage rates and limited existing inventory helped to push new home sales up in March, even as builders continue to grapple with increased construction costs and material supply disruptions. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau estimated sales of newly built, single-family homes in March at a 683,000…
The retreat in mortgage interest rates during the first quarter of 2023 (from the 20-year peak reached in the fall of 2022) led a record share of adults in the US – 18 percent – to declare having plans to buy a home within a year – the largest share since the inception of this…
Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 36 states and the District of Columbia in March compared to the previous month, while 14 states lost jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nationwide total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in March, following a gain of 326,000 jobs in February. On a month-over-month basis, employment data…
