Eye On Housing
According to the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report released by the U.S. Department of Labor today, weekly initial jobless claims inched up during the week ending September 19, and continuing claims, which lag initial jobless claims by one week, decreased for the week ending September 12. The data indicate that labor market continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, but… Read More ›
As the novel coronavirus took hold in the second quarter, households’ market values continued to rise, per second quarter 2020 Federal Reserve Flow of Funds report. In the second quarter, the aggregate value of all household mortgages rose by $80 billion to $10.6 trillion, while the aggregate value of the households’ market values, i.e., that of all owner-occupied real estate… Read More ›
According to the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report released by the U.S. Department of Labor today, weekly initial jobless claims decreased during the week ending September 12, and continuing claims, which lag initial jobless claims by one week, decreased as well for the week ending September 5. The data indicate that labor market improves modestly, but the road to a… Read More ›
The Q2 2020 NAHB Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) reveals a notable multifamily construction shift to the suburbs/exurbs. This is similar to HBGI findings reported for single-family construction. A driver of this broader impact is COVID-19, which thus far has had larger impacts on higher density neighborhoods. These geographic changes will ultimately generate market share gains for smaller multifamily structures,… Read More ›
Both the CPI and “core” CPI continued to increase in August, as food and energy prices increased slightly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, slower than a 0.6% increase in July. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, “core” CPI rose by 0.4%… Read More ›
Weekly initial jobless claims remained unchanged for the week ending September 5, and continuing claims, which lag initial jobless claims by one week, increased by 93,000 for the week ending August 29. This week’s data indicate a slow improvement in labor market that badly damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims… Read More ›
Jack Rutherford served as an intern for the NAHB Economics Group during the summer of 2020. He authored the following post. COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Global Construction and Housing Sectors The impact of COVID-19 on the home building industry is a key concern for most, if not all, countries. There are common vulnerabilities in the global home building industry that… Read More ›
In August, total payroll employment rose by 1.4 million and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4%. The U.S. labor market continues to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Residential construction employment rose by 27,700 in August to 2.9 million. Total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) employment rebounded to 7.2 million in August. It is worth noting, however, that nonresidential construction… Read More ›
Both weekly initial jobless claims and continuing claims, which lag initial jobless claims by one week, declined, mainly reflecting a change in the methodology from the Labor Department. Starting in September 3, 2020, instead of multiplying the unadjusted number by the seasonal factor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has decided to use the additive method to seasonally adjust the… Read More ›
The Q2 2020 results of NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) show geographical trends of the home building industry as the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spread quickly through the United States. Although the pandemic caused widespread economic impacts for many businesses, housing has weathered the economic storm, rebounding quickly from an April slump. Moreover, data from the second quarter NAHB HBGI… Read More ›