Eye On Housing
May housing starts were down 4.8% from a revised April number to an annual rate of 708,000, but starts in the larger single-family sector were up 3.2% to an annual rate of 516,000 and except for December 2011 the highest since end of the home buyer credit in early 2010. A 21.3% drop in multifamily apartment construction pulled the total… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘home building’
Starts in Age Restricted Communities Up Slightly in 2011
In 2009, at the request of NAHB and possibly other stakeholders, the Census Bureau’s Manufacturing and Construction Division added a question on age-restricted communities to its Survey of Construction (the survey that gives us housing starts, among other things). In June of this year, for the first time, the Census Characteristics of New Housing release included enough of this new information… Read More ›
Improving Markets Index Falls to 80
The June NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index declined to 80 from the May level of 100. The drop was a combination of 28 new metropolitan areas added to the list and 48 dropped. The primary reason for falling off the list was a reversal in house prices. The 48 metro areas that saw a new trough in house prices had… Read More ›
Nearly 40% Wealth Decline from 2007 to 2010: Housing Role Key
The 2010 edition of the Federal Reserve’s survey of household balance sheets, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), will soon be published. NAHB Economics will take a detailed look at the data at that time, but the Fed has given us a glimpse of the headline findings in a new bulletin paper. The major headline is that median net worth… Read More ›
Deleveraging Continues: Household Balance Sheets Continue Improving Trend at Start of 2012
Update: see also this post on the recent Fed report showing a 40% decline in median household net worth using 2010 data. NAHB has been tracking two key economic variables that are critical for a robust and sustainable rebound in housing and the economy as a whole: the ratio of household net worth to disposable income (NW/DPI) and the personal… Read More ›
Eye on the Economy: Broader Economic Weakness Threatens Housing Gains
*Eye on the Economy is an NAHB newsletter that is published every two weeks and takes a larger view of recent economic and housing policy news. While housing indicators reported a small slump in February and March, recent data have suggested a return to the long-run trend of improvement for housing. This stands in contrast to recent disappointing news for… Read More ›
NAHB’s MVI Indicates Improving Conditions in the Rental Apartment Market
In the first quarter of 2012, NAHB’s Multifamily Vacancy Index (MVI) dropped to 31, the lowest it’s been since the inception of the index in 2003. As the MVI captures industry sentiment about vacancies, a decline in the index signals overall improvement in the market for existing rental apartments. The MVI is a composite measure of multifamily property owner/manager sentiment… Read More ›
NAHB’s MPI Shows Ongoing Improvement in Multifamily Production
In the first quarter of 2012, NAHB’s Multifamily Production Index (MPI) continued to show improvement, increasing from 49 in the fourth quarter to 51. This is the highest the MPI has been since the third quarter of 2005 and marks the seventh consecutive quarter that the index has increased. The MPI is a composite measure of builder/developer sentiment about production… Read More ›
Credit Conditions for Builders May Be Stabilizing, But Remain Tight
After more than five years of persistent tightening, NAHB’s survey on Acquisition Development & Construction (AD&C) financing finally shows conditions stabilizing somewhat in the first quarter of 2012. After such a protracted period of decline, however, the stability comes at a very low level of credit availabity. The NAHB survey results remain somewhat at odds with a similar net tightening… Read More ›