Eye On Housing
The Census Bureau’s preliminary estimate of starts in buildings with five or more apartments for November surged 32 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 230,000. While growth in this sector is typically more volatile than the single family sector, the trend is clearly upward, with production more than doubling since the trough in late 2009, and recovering to… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘housing’
Single-Family and Multifamily Starts: Long-Run Trends
Growth in multifamily construction is leading the recent increase in housing starts. And with many analysts focusing on multifamily development, we thought it would be useful to consider the long-run relationship between single-family and multifamily housing starts. Over the last 40 years, a discernible trend has emerged with respect to the ratio of single-family to multifamily housing starts. Overall, both types of starts have been subject… Read More ›
Top 2011 Posts: The Geography of Rent-Burdened Households
With the end of 2011 approaching, the contributors who work on NAHB’s Eye on Housing thought it would be useful to take a look at the updates that attracted the most readers over the last year. In October, we used Census data to examine the geography of “rent-burdened” households. The analysis indicated that 25% of renters were paying more than 50% of their income in… Read More ›
Top 2011 Posts: The Rental Housing Stock
With the end of 2011 approaching, we here at NAHB’s Eye on Housing thought we would take a look at the updates that attracted the most readers over the last year. In July we examined the composition of the rental housing stock in the United States. The NAHB analysis of 2009 Census data found that one-third of rental housing consisted of… Read More ›
Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) December 13 Meeting Statement – Stay The Course, Again
The statement following the Federal Reserve Board’s FOMC meeting on December 13 was largely a rerun of the November meeting. The Fed will continue the current policies including keeping the Fed funds target rate in its 0 to 25 basis point range until at least mid-2013, extending the average maturity of its securities holdings, reinvesting principal payments on agency debt… Read More ›
Construction Jobs Continue Slow Growth per October JOLTS Data
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data for October from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that the national economy, while sluggish, continues to trend better with respect to job openings. Total job openings for all non-farm sectors were essentially unchanged at 3.3 million. The job openings rate of 2.4% for October remains at levels last consistently experienced in 2008. The… Read More ›
Declining Multifamily Vacancy Rates Point to Future Growth
Data from the Survey of Market Absorption (SOMA), produced by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, reveal limited weakness in the multifamily sector for the first half of 2011. However, declining multifamily vacancy rates are a hopeful sign for future multifamily market expansion, which is consistent with improving responses reported in NAHB multifamily surveys. The SOMA tracks completions and… Read More ›
Flawed Appraisals Preventing Home Sales
One out of three builders are reporting losing signed sales contracts during the preceding six months because appraisals on their homes are less than the contract sales price, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). It is too common, due to faulty appraisal practices, for brand new homes with appliances and interior… Read More ›
Twenty Metros Join List of Improving Housing Markets Index in December
The number of improving housing markets continued to expand for a fourth consecutive month in December, rising from 30 to 41 on the latest National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI), released today. The December list featured 20 new additions, including several major markets such as Washington, D.C.; San Jose, Calif.; and Toledo, Ohio. Meanwhile, nine smaller… Read More ›
The Geography of Home Size and Occupancy
A new research paper from NAHB Economics examines the geography of the relationship between home size and the number of people residing in a given home. It is well-known that home sizes, on average, increase as one moves from the central city to the suburbs. As a result, a stereotype exists of that people living in larger homes in the suburbs are… Read More ›