Eye On Housing
The shock and fallout to the construction labor market from the recession of 2020 continued in early Fall as housing activity strengthened due to low interest rates. After an accelerated pace of layoffs in March and April, construction hiring roared back in May and June, per data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). More recent July… Read More ›
For the first time since the Census Bureau started tracking lot sizes for new single-family detached homes, the median lot size for homes sold in 2019 dropped to 8,177 square feet, or 0.188 of an acre. This represents a solid drop of 390 square feet since 2018 and a new record low. The shrinking median lot size largely reflects the… Read More ›
New single-family home sales surged in August, as housing demand was supported by low interest rates, a renewed consumer focus on the importance of housing, and rising demand in lower-density markets like suburbs and exurbs. Census and HUD estimated new home sales in August at a 1.01 million seasonally adjusted annual pace, an approximate 4.8% gain over revised July rate… Read More ›
The residential sector, including single-family, multifamily, and manufactured housing, accounts for about 21.2% of the US energy consumption, according to the 2020 Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Review. New homes built since 2000 account for just 3.7% of the total energy consumed in the U.S., according to NAHB’s analysis of the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) data from… Read More ›
We know lumber prices are up more than 170% since mid-April as of mid-September. As housing has rebounded, the lack of lumber has materialized as a key weak spot for housing supply. With that in mind, what’s the market share of alternative framing methods? For better or worse, wood framing remains the dominant construction method for single-family homes in the… Read More ›
Single-family starts showed continued growth in August but overall housing production fell 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million units due to a double-digit percentage decline in multifamily production, according to data from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and Commerce Departments. The pace of single-family starts in August was the highest production rate since February…. Read More ›
In a strong signal that housing is leading the economic recovery, builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes increased five points to hit an all-time high of 83 in September, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The previous highest reading of 78 in the 35-year history of the series was set last month and… Read More ›
Over the first seven months of 2020, total single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 525,623. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is an 5.8% increase over the July 2019 level of 496,726. Year-to-date ending in July, single-family permits across the four regions ranged from an increase of 8.6% in the South to a decline of 1.7% in the Northeast…. Read More ›
After an accelerated pace of layoffs in March and April, construction hiring roared back in May, increasing the count of open jobs in July per data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The rebound for construction is concentrated in the residential building sector. The pace of construction rehiring increased the open jobs rate to 4.4% in… Read More ›
Continuing a period of weakness that began at the end of 2019, the volume of residential construction lending posted a slight decline during the second quarter of 2020. This decline corresponded with a significant drop for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index and 24% decline for single-family starts during the quarter. The volume of 1-4 unit residential construction loans made… Read More ›