Eye On Housing
Rising mortgage rates approaching 7% along with declining builder sentiment stemming from stubbornly high construction costs and weakening consumer demand pushed new-home sales down at a double-digit rate in September. Following a brief uptick in August, sales of newly built, single-family homes in September fell 10.9% to a 603,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to newly released data by the… Read More ›
Median square foot prices (excluding record-high improved lot values) for new for-sale single-family detached (SFD) homes started in 2021 increased 19%, according to NAHB’s analysis of the latest Survey of Construction data. Increases for square foot prices in new custom SFD homes were more moderate, averaging 5%. Median sale and contract prices per square foot of floor area went up… Read More ›
Single-family housing starts declined further in September as high mortgage rates, ongoing building material production disruptions and flagging demand stemming from rising affordability challenges continue to put a damper on new home production. Overall housing starts decreased 8.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.44 million units in September, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing… Read More ›
In a further signal that rising interest rates, building material bottlenecks and elevated home prices continue to weaken the housing market, builder sentiment fell for the 10th straight month in October and traffic of prospective buyers fell to its lowest level since 2012, with the exception of two months during the Spring of 2020. Builder confidence in the market for… Read More ›
Over the first eight months of 2022, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 728,866. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is 6.0% below the August 2021 level of 775,772. Year-to-date ending in August, single-family permits declined in all four regions. The South posted a modest decline of 3.9%, while the Midwest region reported the steepest… Read More ›
Of the roughly 1.1 million single-family homes started in 2021, 63.4 percent came with porches, according to NAHB tabulation of data from the Survey of Construction (SOC, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau with partial funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development). This marks the first time the share of single-family homes with porches has dipped below 64 percent since 2015. … Read More ›
The NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the third quarter of 2022 posted a reading of 77, declining 10 points from the third quarter of 2021. The RMI is based on a survey that asks remodelers to rate various aspects of the residential remodeling market “good,” “fair” or “poor.” Responses from each question are converted to an index that… Read More ›
A majority of new homes that completed construction in 2021 included two-car garages (67%), according to NAHB analysis of 2021 Census Bureau Survey of Construction data. There is clear uniformity for parking options in new homes completed across the Census divisions: the 2-car garage was the most popular parking option for completed homes in all divisions. The option for three or… Read More ›
The count of open, unfilled jobs for the overall economy fell 10% in August, declining from almost 11.2 million to 10.05 million. The decline for open jobs reflects the beginnings of a labor market retreat as the economy slows due to aggressive tightening of monetary policy by the Fed. While the economy continues to face a critical skilled labor shortage,… Read More ›
The business of the typical NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) builder grew significantly between 2020 and 2021, according to results from NAHB’s latest member census. The 2021 NAHB census shows that the median gross revenue of an NAHB builder in 2021 was $3.3 million, up 26.9 percent from the previous year. NAHB reinstated its member census during the industry-wide… Read More ›