The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge remained elevated in August, complicating the Fed’s path to its 2% target. Core PCE held at 3.0% year-over-year for the third consecutive month. Though the reading came in lower than expected, it’s not necessarily a sign of disinflation. The...
Consumer confidence in September plunged to the lowest level since April 2014 as consumers grew more pessimistic about current conditions and the economic outlook. This report captured consumer sentiment following the Fed’s first rate hike since 2023 and ongoing geopolitical tensions. Consumer views of business...
The number of open positions in the construction sector fell back in August per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The current level of open jobs is down from three years ago due to declines in construction activity, particularly...
New homes with 5,000 square feet or more of living space posted an increase in market share last year. In 2025, 27,000 homes of this size were started, accounting for 2.9% of all new homes started. Both the number and market share of homes with...
Twenty-one percent of NAHB builder members listed residential remodeling as their primary business, according to the 2025 Member Census. These remodelers tend to be relatively small, with a median of five employees and a median annual revenue of $2.1 million. This means that remodelers are...
Total tax revenue collected by state and local governments was up 5.8% from a year ago in the second quarter, according to the Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue published by the U.S. Census Bureau. This was the highest year-over-year growth since...
New home sales improved in August, but the monthly gain masked continued weakness in the broader new-home market. Elevated mortgage rates and ongoing affordability challenges continue to constrain demand, with new home sales remaining below last year’s pace and year-to-date sales lower than in 2025....
Adults ages 55 and older make up a large and growing share of the U.S. population and play an important role in the U.S. housing market. In 2024, around 103 million Americans were ages 55 or older, ranging from adults still in the labor force...
Single-family homes started construction in 2025 typically had two full bathrooms, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Construction. A full bathroom, as defined by the Bureau, is one that has a washbasin, a toilet and either a bathtub or shower, or a...
The remodeling industry is taking on a larger role within the residential construction sector. Structural tailwinds, such as an aging housing stock, the growing trend of aging-in-place among older home owners, and record-high housing wealth, will continue to grow remodeling’s market share further. As a...
Three-bedroom single-family homes remained the most common home built with respect to the number of bedrooms. The share of starts for four-bedroom homes declined for the fourth consecutive year but remained well above the shares for two-bedroom or less and five-bedroom or more homes. Despite...
Wood framing continues to dominate the U.S. single-family home construction market, according to NAHB analysis of 2025 Census Bureau data. In 2025, wood framing accounted for 94% of all completed single-family homes, maintaining its position as the leading construction method. Concrete-framed homes represented 5% of...
State labor markets showed mixed results in August, with nonfarm payroll employment increasing in a majority of states. At the same time, construction employment posted a net gain nationally, although employment trends varied across states. The unemployment rate also remained relatively low in several states,...
Single-family housing starts rebounded in August, but production remains down 4.7% year to date as builders contend with rising construction costs, lot and labor shortages, and economic uncertainty. Overall housing starts decreased 2.6% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.28 million units,...
The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 25 basis points at the conclusion of its September policy meeting, bringing the target range to 3.75% to 4%. The decision comes amid renewed inflation concerns and an increase in long-term interest rates. Notably, the decision...
Higher mortgage rates, worsening labor shortages and rising material costs are weighing on builder sentiment. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes fell three points to 32 in September, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index...
Single-family permitting activity continued to weaken through the first seven months of 2026, while multifamily permitting remained stronger compared with the same period last year. Although single-family permits declined in most regions and states, multifamily permitting increased in three of the four regions, led by...
In 2025, the number of women employed in the construction industry rose to around 1.37 million, an increase of about 31,000 from 2024. Women accounted for 11.3% of total construction employment, the highest share in the past 20 years. The growing presence of women...
