Average hourly earnings for residential building workers have been growing fast recently, driven by the tightening construction labor market. Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the unemployment rate declined to 3.9% in December, the lowest rate since the pandemic. As the...
Job gains slowed sharply for the second straight month in December as the Omicron variant began to spread. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 199,000 in December, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%. Construction industry employment (both residential and non-residential) totaled 7.6 million, with 22,000 construction...
The failure of domestic sawmills to sufficiently boost output in the face of ongoing strong home buyer demand was a primary factor that contributed to record-high lumber prices and price volatility in 2021. Soaring lumber prices, combined with delays and higher costs for other building...
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 37 states and the District of Columbia in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the second quarter of 2021. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the percent change increase in real GDP ranged from...
Consumer confidence continued to improve in December as inflation concerns eased after hitting a 13-year high last month. Spending intentions for homes, cars, and major appliances all increased. However, consumer spending will continue to face headwinds from higher prices, Omicron surge and reduced fiscal stimulus...
The construction labor market remains tight, as the levels of quits rise. The count of open construction jobs declined to 345,000 unfilled positions in November, after recording the highest measure in the history of the data series (going back to late 2000), 445,000 in October....
NAHB analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending rose 0.9% in November after a decrease of 0.2% in October 2021. It stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $796.3 billion. Total private residential construction spending was 16.3% higher...
New NAHB research shows that despite declining self-employment rates and the rising top builder market share, residential construction remains the industry of independent entrepreneurs with close to 80% of homebuilders and specialty trade contractor firms being self-employed independent contractors. Even among firms with paid employees,...
Although lumber prices have declined somewhat recently, this follows a period of record increases that started in mid-2020 and have left prices at historic highs. In a recent NAHB survey, 94 percent of builders reported a shortage of framing lumber. Despite this, as Tuesday’s post...
A new NAHB study shows that, on average, regulations imposed by government at all levels account for $93,870 of the final price of a new single-family home built for sale. Of the $93,870, $41,330 is due to a higher price for the finished lot, attributable...
New NAHB research based on the latest 2019 American Housing Survey (AHS) shows that, on average, homeowners spend around $9,240 per year to operate and maintain a single-family detached home. This includes property taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities, with property taxes being the costliest component....
Public education accounts for almost 40% of local government direct expenditures per housing unit, based on data from the Census of Government. School impact fees on new construction are typically determined in part by assumptions about the number of children in public schools per housing...
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,...
