Solid nominal wage gains (unadjusted for inflation) combined with lower mortgage rates and home prices helped to boost housing affordability in the first quarter of 2023, but ongoing building material supply chain issues and expected cooling of wage growth signal ongoing concerns for affordability conditions...
The latest labor force statistics from the 2021 American Community Survey show that the construction industry continues to struggle to attract younger workers. While workers under the age of 25 comprised 13.6% of the US labor force, their share in the construction industry reached only...
While single-family home building has slowed significantly from pandemic-fueled highs because of higher interest rates and construction costs, the slowdown is less pronounced in lower density markets. On the other hand, multifamily market growth remained strong throughout much of the nation, according to the latest...
NAHB analysis of the most recent 2021 American Community Survey (ACS) data reveals that the median age of construction workers is 42, one year older than a typical worker in the national labor force. Attracting skilled labor is still the primary long-term goal for construction,...
Job growth accelerated in May. Total payroll employment rose by 339,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%. While labor demand remained strong, wage pressures eased from a year ago. In May, wage growth slowed to a 4.3% year-over-year gain, from 4.4% last month, and...
Private residential construction spending inched up 0.5% in April, as spending on multifamily homes increased 0.6%. Private residential construction spending increased for the first time since June 2022 amid elevated mortgage interest rates. However, it is still 9.2% lower compared to a year ago. The...
Despite some negative reporting about private builder access to acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) financing, the volume of total outstanding loans posted a gain during the first quarter of 2023, albeit at the slowest growth rate since the end of 2020. Nonetheless, interest rates for...
The count of open, unfilled jobs for the overall economy moved higher in April, rising to 10.1 million and complicating the June Federal Reserve decision. The higher job opening count for April increases the chance of another rate hike despite some speculation that May was...
After seven consecutive months of decline, home prices climbed for a second straight month in March as low inventory levels persist. Locally, five metro areas, reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, experienced negative home price appreciation in March. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home...
While mortgage rates were stabilizing in the first quarter of 2023, rates on loans for Acquisition, Development & Construction (AD&C) continued to climb, according to NAHB’s quarterly Survey on AD&C Financing. From the last quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, the average...
Data from the Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Market Absorptions of New Multifamily Units (SOMA) indicates that multifamily market demand has softened as the percentage of apartments absorbed within the first 3 months of completion fell to 59.0% after six consecutive quarters of above 60.0%...
The missing middle construction sector includes development of medium-density housing, such as townhouses, duplexes and other small multifamily properties. The multifamily segment of the missing middle (apartments in 2- to 4-unit properties) has disappointed since the Great Recession. For the first quarter of 2023, there...
Stabilizing mortgage rates and a lack of resale inventory provided a boost for new home sales in April, even as builders continue to wrestle with rising costs stemming from shortages of transformers and other building materials and a persistent lack of construction workers. Sales of...
According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the count of multifamily, for-rent housing starts remained elevated during the first quarter of 2023. For the first quarter, 127,000 multifamily residences started construction. Of this total, 123,000 were built-for-rental use. The market share of rental units...
An expected impact of the virus crisis is a need for more residential space, as people use homes for more purposes including work. Home size correspondingly increased in 2021 as interest rates reached historic lows. However, as interest rates increased in 2022, and housing affordability...
Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 36 states in April compared to the previous month, while 14 states and the District of Columbia lost jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nationwide total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 253,000 in April, following a gain of...
NAHB’s analysis of Census Data from the Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design survey indicates custom home building gained market share during recent quarters but experienced a notable drop for construction starts at the beginning of 2023. There were 36,000 total custom building...
Existing home sales fell to three-month low in April as limited inventory and fluctuating mortgage rates continued to weight on homebuyers, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). With inflation continuing to ease and rent growth expected to slow, existing home sales will rebound,...
