I speak at various industry conferences, sometimes as often as 10 times a year, and I also write this regular monthly column along with one for our sister publication, as well as occasional other articles. This gives me a great pulpit to occasionally espouse our firm’s go-against-the grain view of the general economy, and our industry in particular, especially when…
Read MoreAuthor: Pierre Villere
The Promise of Artificial Intelligence
It was sometime in the late 1970s, but I remember the conversation, even the restaurant, very well. I was in my late 20s, and one of my friends who had migrated to New York after college and found a solid footing in Wall Street investment banking was back in his hometown of New Orleans, where several of our old friends…
Read MoreThe Pulse (Third Quarter 2023 Edition)
By Allen-Villere Partners The Pulse and the AVP Pulse Index, are joint projects between mergers-and-acquisition advisors Allen-Villere Partners, and Rock Products. The Pulse appears quarterly in Rock Products, and the AVP Pulse Index appears monthly Almost all the publicly traded companies in the Construction Materials space are trading at or near their 52-week high, indicating an overwhelmingly positive outlook among investors for…
Read MoreThe Biggest Wealth Transfer in History
As we mull over the prospect of a recession, which I am still convinced will not happen, it is significant to note there are some financial forces at play over the next several years that will have a huge, and positive, impact on our economy. As I have said in prior columns and to state and national association presentations for…
Read MoreHousing Affordability is a Big Challenge
Last month, I wrote about how population growth is one of the biggest drivers of the entire housing market, including new and existing homes. Why? Because population growth helps drive housing formations. The majority of household formations occur when a group of young Millennials or Gen-Zers leave their parents’ basements and decide to room together, usually in connection with a…
Read MoreHousing Sentiment Drops, But What About the Growing Population?
For decades now, I have written columns and made industry presentations around the country that talk about the one, sure-fire driver of construction in America: population growth. Yes, the long, historical graph line has a sawtooth to it, but generally speaking, it is the population growth in our country that has driven construction growth, as we build homes to house…
Read MoreThe Pulse
By: Allen-Villere Partners and Rock Products.
Read MoreA Peek Behind the Employment Curtain
Last month, I wrote about the stabilizing inventory issue across all goods, the unclogging of supply chains and the general normalization to pre-pandemic times. This is a welcome change for consumers that points to the supply chain recovery being firmly in place, with COVID receding into the rearview mirror. But given the headlines and sound bites we are surrounded with…
Read MoreShortages Start to Ease
We have all suffered through the shortages and supply chain disruptions the pandemic thrust upon the global economy and threw manufacturing and retail inventories into a tizzy. But we are now witnessing the easing of shortages as ports become unclogged, factory workers return to their production jobs, and trucking and rail is stabilizing. For the aggregates industry, the shortages were…
Read MoreThe Pulse
Announcing the New Rock Products/Allen-Villere Partners Construction Materials Report and AVP Pulse Index. By Pierre G. Villere This month marks the launch of The Pulse and the AVP Pulse Index, a joint effort between mergers and acquisition advisors Allen-Villere Partners, and Rock Products, the aggregates industry’s leading source for market analysis and technology solutions. The Pulse will appear quarterly in…
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