Eye On Housing
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed new standards to determine if construction materials for federally funded infrastructure projects are made in the USA. The new guidance, required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)—“sets standards to carry out the statutory requirement that all manufacturing processes for construction material occur in… Read More ›
In May of last year, Eye on Housing reported on historically widespread shortages of building materials. Since then, most of the shortages have eased; the major exceptions being shortages of HVAC equipment and certain categories of ceramic materials (ceramic tiles, clay bricks and cement-based building materials), which have gotten slightly worse. NAHB has been tracking shortages of building materials and… Read More ›
Per the latest results of NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), single-family home building showed higher growth rates across all regional submarkets in the fourth quarter of 2021, relative to the fourth quarter of 2020. Quarterly growth, however, trended downwards for all regions in the third and fourth quarters of 2021. Supply-side constraints and expectations of rising interest rates, particularly… Read More ›
Although lumber prices have declined somewhat recently, this follows a period of record increases that started in mid-2020 and have left prices at historic highs. In a recent NAHB survey, 94 percent of builders reported a shortage of framing lumber. Despite this, as Tuesday’s post showed, wood framing remains the dominant construction method for single-family homes in the U.S., accounting… Read More ›
Shortages of materials are now more widespread than at any at any time since NAHB began tracking the issue on a regular basis in the 1990s in is survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). In response to special questions on the May 2021 HMI survey, over 90 percent of builders who buy the product in question reported… Read More ›
Over the last month, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) tracked 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dipped below the elevated levels shown in April, mirroring a similar decline in Treasury yields. For the week ending May 14, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 3.15%. The MBA’s Market Composite Index, reflective of activity in refinancing and purchase mortgages, changed course compared to… Read More ›
Shortages of framing lumber are now more widespread than at any time since NAHB began tracking the issue in a consistent way in 1994, according to results from the May 2018 survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Over 30 percent of single-family builders responding to the survey’s special questions in May reported a shortage of framing lumber, outdistancing the other 22… Read More ›
For several years now, the recovery in single-family home building has been hampered by shortages of labor and lots. Availability of building materials, meanwhile, has not been much of an issue. But that may be starting to change. In answer to questions on the May 2017 survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, 21% of single-family builders reported a shortage… Read More ›