Eye On Housing
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. Annual operating costs increase consistently with household income, home size and value. When measured as… Read More ›
Job openings in construction remained steady in November as net job gains continued, albeit with distinctions between residential and nonresidential construction. As detailed in the December BLS employment data, over the past eight months job gains in residential construction have offset all of the jobs lost in March and April. Sector employment now stands higher than in February. In contrast, only… Read More ›
After a surge in the pace of new home sales in earlier in the year, the monthly growth rate of newly built single-family home slowed during recent months. Sales exceeded construction starts by a historic margin at the end of the summer. This necessitated an increase in starts and some slowing of sales. Nonetheless, the acceleration of sales in 2020… Read More ›
Single-family starts leveled off in November, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau. Single-family construction is up 10.1% year-to-date, with notable gains in 2020 for the Midwest, parts of the West and other lower-density markets. The pace of single-family starts in November was the highest production rate since the spring of… Read More ›
Ending a string of three successive months of record highs, builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes fell four points to 86 in December, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Despite the decline, December is still the second-highest reading in the history of the series after last month’s 90. Housing demand is strong… Read More ›
According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), the custom home share increased to 20.2 percent of all single-family homes started in 2019. Contractor-built or owner-built houses – that together make up the custom home market – are built one at a time for owner occupancy on owner’s land with either the owner or a builder acting… Read More ›
After a surge in the pace of new home sales in July and August, the monthly growth rate of newly built single-family home slowed during the Fall. While the level of sales remains elevated and at post-Great Recession highs, sales have exceeded construction starts by a historic margin at the end of the summer. This necessitated an increase in starts… Read More ›
According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the market share of rental units of total multifamily construction starts remained at 96% during the third quarter of 2020. In contrast, the historical low share of 47% was set during the third quarter of 2005, during the condo building boom. An average share of 80% was registered during the 1980-2002 period…. Read More ›
Of the roughly 879,000 single-family homes started in 2019, 59.6 percent included patios, according to NAHB tabulation of data from the Survey of Construction (SOC, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and partially funded by HUD). Once again, this set a new record high (NAHB began tracking the series in 2005), and once again the record was set by a… Read More ›
NAHB’s analysis of Census Data from the Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design survey indicates custom home building lagged the overall single-family construction market in the third quarter of 2020. There were 52,000 total custom building starts during the third quarter, a 7% decline compared to the third quarter of 2019. Over the last four quarters, custom housing starts totaled… Read More ›