National Association of Home Builders Economic Research Blog

Which Local Markets Track National Trends the Most: 2024 Single-Family MAI
Which Local Markets Track National Trends the Most: 2024 Single-Family MAI
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The National Association of Home Builders developed the Single-Family Market Association Index (MAI) to measure how closely single-family building permits in metro areas follow national patterns. By comparing local and ...
The Fed Cuts amid Partly Cloudy Conditions
The Fed Cuts amid Partly Cloudy Conditions
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With the government shutdown limiting the quantity of economic data available to markets and policymakers, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) enacted a widely anticipated 25 basis point ...
Home Price Growth Slows
Home Price Growth Slows
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Home prices in August grew at the lowest annual rate in over two years, according to the recent release of the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Home Price Index (seasonally adjusted – ...
Two-Story Foyer Trend Stabilizes in 2024
Two-Story Foyer Trend Stabilizes in 2024
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In 2024, nearly a quarter of new homes were built with a two-story foyer, virtually unchanged from 2023, according to data obtained from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC) ...
Inflation Picks Up in September
Inflation Picks Up in September
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Inflation increased in September to the fastest pace since the start of the year, showing tariff pressure on prices continues to materialize gradually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ...
Existing Home Sales Increase in September
Existing Home Sales Increase in September
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Existing home sales rose to a seven-month high in September as mortgage rates eased and inventory improved, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Resale inventory matched to the ...
Where are Porches Most Common for Newly-Built Homes?
Where are Porches Most Common for Newly-Built Homes?
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Although the share of new homes with porches edged down in 2024, porches continue to rank as the most common outdoor feature on new homes, according to NAHB tabulation of ...
How COVID-19 Reshaped the U.S. Labor Market and Housing Demand
How COVID-19 Reshaped the U.S. Labor Market and Housing Demand
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Between February 2020 and June 2022, the U.S. labor market experienced the deepest downturn on record followed by the fastest recovery in at least a century. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted ...
Median Age of Construction Labor Force Holds at 42 
Median Age of Construction Labor Force Holds at 42 
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The median age of construction labor force is 42, one year older than a typical worker in the national labor force, according to NAHB analysis of the most recent 2023 ...
Non-Conventional Financing for New Home Sales Loses Ground in 2024
Non-Conventional Financing for New Home Sales Loses Ground in 2024
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Nationwide, the share of non-conventional financing for new home sales accounted for 31% of the market per NAHB analysis of the 2024 Census Bureau Survey of Construction (SOC) data. This ...
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As the U.S. economy struggles under the burden of the coronavirus pandemic, economists are discussing how a recovery might unfold once social distancing and other measures begin to succeed. A recent NAHB article illustrates the role home building can play in a recovery by generating...

Home building in the 2010s was a story of the Long Recovery. After the Great Recession, the number of home builders declined significantly, and housing production was unable to meet buyer demand. This deficit of housing in the United States continues to exist because of...

According to a recent NAHB study, although use of some factory-produced components like trusses has become widespread, the newer and more innovative types of construction technology, such as 3D printing and robots, have so far penetrated the residential market only to a very limited extent....

A recent NAHB Special Study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NYLS) to study lifetime homeownership rates and how long individuals sustain in homeownership. The study finds a lifetime homeownership rate of 90.5% among the 1979 NLSY cohort, meaning that most people become homeowners...

Prices paid for goods used in residential construction decreased by 0.3% in September (not seasonally adjusted) according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Building materials prices have declined an average of 0.1% per month over the last...

How do homes built-for-rent differ from more common for-sale new single-family homes? This is an important question given recent attention on the built-for-rent sector of the residential construction industry. Second quarter data for 2019 reveal that approximately 42,000 homes were built-for-rent over the last year,...

NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing published by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that mortgages backed by the FHA made up 17.9% (32,000) of total sales (179,000), 7.3 percentage points higher than Q2 2018 (20,000). The FHA share is...

Earlier this year, NAHB released 2017 property taxes by state as a blog post and as a longer special study. However, in light of changes made to the tax code by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), further refining the statistics by congressional district...

Although produced by NAHB’s Economists, Eye on Housing is intended for a fairly broad readership with an interest in housing, but not necessarily in the academic research published by technical journals. Nevertheless, many EoH readers will want to know about a relatively recent technical paper...

Housing markets in the Midwest have experienced weakness in recent quarters. For example, single-family permits posted a 3.6% decline in year-to-date data when comparing December 2018 level with December 2017 in the Midwest. Single-family permitting for the first four months of 2019 are down 11.3%...

In July 2018, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced its intention to levy tariffs on a series of imports from China. USTR rolled out proposed tariffs in three waves, with the third list (List 3) covering approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. The...

In the average new home, 28.0 percent of the finished floor space is allocated to bedrooms and 11.2 percent to the kitchen area, according to a recent NAHB study. The questions covered 13 specific types of areas or rooms, plus a catch-all “other” category for...

Property taxes vary widely across states both in terms of annual taxes paid as well as effective tax rates. In 2017, the difference between average real estate taxes paid by New Jersey and Alabama home owners was nearly $8,000. New Jersey continued its perennial distinction...

Vacancy rates are one of the key statistics NAHB Economics tracks to judge the health and direction of the housing market. The currently low homeowner and rental vacancy rates are typically interpreted as a sign of tight housing markets, with lower vacancy rates signaling a...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), signed into law in late 2017, created a new section of the tax code—199A. Section 199A provides a 20% deduction for “qualified business income” generated by pass-thru entities such as LLCs, partnerships, and S-corporations. The law went a...

As tax reform negotiations pressed forward last year, there were high hopes that the dreaded individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) would be repealed. While the corporate AMT was abolished permanently, unfortunately, the individual AMT still exists under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). However,...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) added numerous temporary provisions to the tax code. Temporary tax law can be difficult to track and compliance can be expensive. Earlier this year, the Joint Committee on Taxation released a guide to expiring tax provisions, sorted by...

Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) went into effect, a business’s net operating losses (NOLs) could generally be carried back two years and carried forward 20 years to offset taxable income. Tax reform, however, repealed the two-year carryback allowance and other special carryback...

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