Eye On Housing
The typical size of newly built single-family homes was effectively unchanged from the third to fourth quarter of 2015. The current data is consistent with the general trend of flat growth for the size of typical newly-built homes, a pattern that took hold during 2014. As first-time buyers return to the market, typical home size is expected to trend somewhat lower. According to fourth quarter 2015 data from the Census Quarterly Starts… Read More ›
The pace of housing construction weakened at the start of 2016, as total housing starts fell 3.8% in January, according to estimates from the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The rate of single-family construction declined 3.9% from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 731,000 units. The decline was consistent with the drop in… Read More ›
With the December report on housing starts and permits, preliminary totals for 2015 are now available. Total housing starts at 1.11 million were up 10.8% in 2015 compared to 2014. Single-family starts were up 10.4% to 715,300 and multifamily starts were up 11.4% to 396,000. All four census regions also experienced increases in single-family starts for 2015. The monthly change… Read More ›
Due to the surge in multifamily development and the ongoing modest growth for single-family, there has been a noticeable shift in the market shares of housing units under construction. The Census housing starts data illustrate a trend to more multifamily units in the production pipeline. Using the seasonally adjusted Census estimates, at the end of November there were 549,000 multifamily units… Read More ›
Single-family home builders sentiment remained near the same level established in June 2015. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell one point to 61 in December. The index has been between 60 and 62 for six of the last seven months with only October rising briefly to 65. The three components mirrored the trend with current sales falling one point… Read More ›
Permits to build new homes increased 4.1% in October to a level of 1.15 million per year. Both single-family and multifamily levels increased by 2.4% and 6.8% respectively. On a year-to-date basis, total permits are up 11.9%; single-family are up 8.6% and multifamily are up 17.2% as the housing market continues its modest pace of recovery. Housing starts were down… Read More ›
Housing starts for the month of September rose 6.5% to an eight year high of 1.206 million units on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis. The increase was all in the multifamily sector, rising 18.3% to 466,000. Single-family starts were virtually unchanged at 740,000. This is the first month total starts passed the 1.2 million mark since October 2007. The trends in… Read More ›
The pace of housing starts posted a small decline in August, but permits and builder confidence suggest ongoing, modest growth for the rest of the year. After a downward revision for July, total housing starts declined 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.126 million, as detailed in the joint release from the Census Bureau and HUD. The declines… Read More ›
Single-family homes built-for-rent increased to approximately 8,000 starts for the second quarter of 2015, compared to about 6,000 for the same period of 2014. The share and count of built-for-rent starts are off post-recession highs and will likely approach historical norms as the housing market continues to expand. However, given the relatively small size of this market, care must be taken when tracing changes in the… Read More ›
NAHB’s analysis of Census Data from the Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design survey indicates that the number of custom home building starts (homes built on an owner’s land, with either the owner or a builder acting as the general contractor) posted a slight increase on a year-over year basis as of the second quarter of 2015. Over the last four quarters,… Read More ›