The United States Post Office has been attempting to reduce or eliminate sidewalk and curbside delivery of mail to individual homes, especially in new subdivisions. Instead, the Post Office now wants to deliver mail primarily to centralized or “cluster” mailboxes, each serving multiple homes in...
Ever since the inception of the U.S. income tax in 1913, home owners have been able to deduct interest paid on home equity loans (HELOCs). The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 limited the mortgage interest and HELOC deductions to interest paid on $1,000,000 and...
NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing published by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that conventional loans accounted for 73.8% of new home sales in the first quarter of 2018, the highest share in a decade. Conventional loans financed over...
The business interest deduction has been a staple of the tax code for over a century. Deducting interest is important in home building, as debt is a critical financing tool and access to equity markets is challenging for the majority of home builders. The new...
The prior two Tax Reform Toolkit posts have explained the new 20 percent pass-thru deduction (i.e. 199A) as it applies to pass-thru owners with: Less than $315,000 (married filer) or $157,500 (single) of taxable income, or More than $415,000 (married) or $207,500 (single) of taxable...
About two years ago, NAHB reported that 22 percent of single-family builders had used aerial drones (or unmanned aircraft systems, as the Department of Defense calls them) at least once in their construction businesses. But the times they are a-changing. When we revisited the issue...
The new NAHB study presents the most recent and comprehensive estimates of home building employment, including self-employed workers, by state. NAHB Economics estimates that out of 9.8 million people working in construction in 2016, more than 3.8 million people worked in residential construction, accounting for...
Eye on Housing’s first Tax Reform Toolkit post explained the basics of the new 20% deduction for pass-thru income (i.e. the 199A deduction). That article focused on how the deduction works for a taxpayer who has less than $315,000 of taxable income if married and...
According to the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), nationally, the primary residence represents the largest asset category on the balance sheets of households in 2016 (as shown in Figure 1 below). At $24.2 trillion, the primary residence accounted for about one quarter of all...
Prices paid for building materials increased across the board in February. The indexes for softwood lumber (+5.6%), gypsum products (+4.2%), OSB (+3.1%), ready-mix concrete (+0.4%), and inputs to residential construction less labor (+1.0%) all increased, according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) release by...
One of the new aspects of the tax code is the 20% pass-thru deduction, also known as the 199A deduction. It is a centerpiece of the tax bill, and one which most small business owners have heard about. Nevertheless, it warrants detailed explanation because, unsurprisingly,...
NAHB regularly conducts national polls of American adults and home buyers in order to understand new trends and preferences in the housing market. This is the fifth in a series of posts highlighting poll results, as presented during the 2018 International Builders’ Show in Orlando,...
NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing published by the Census Bureau reveals that cash sales accounted for 11,000 new home sales in the fourth quarter of 2017. Cash purchases also accounted for 11,000 new home sales in Q2 2017,...
From the trough of the housing downturn in 2010 through 2015, the number of homes under construction increased by 131 percent and the number of employees working in construction trade businesses increased by 18 percent. Over that span, how much would you guess the number of...
Prices paid for OSB (-13.0%), softwood lumber (-1.0%), and inputs to residential construction (-0.1%), all decreased in December, according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index for gypsum products advanced (+1.6%). Over the course of 2017,...
Prices paid for inputs to residential construction (+0.7%), softwood lumber (+2.3%), gypsum products (0.4%), and OSB (+15.3%) all increased in November, according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since January 2017, the price paid for every major...
The price of OSB fell 1.0% in October, in contrast to prices paid for softwood lumber (+2.3%), gypsum products (+0.3%) and ready-mix concrete (+0.2%), which all increased. In addition, the price index measuring inputs to residential construction rose 0.1% in October, according to the latest...
The residential sector accounts for less than 8 percent of water used in the U.S., according to a recent study published by NAHB. The recent NAHB study draws on information published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS compiles data on water use every...
