A brief decline in mortgage rates helped to boost new home sales in August but sales are expected to move on a downward trend in the months ahead as rates have since moved higher and builder sentiment continues to fall due to declining housing affordability and ongoing supply chain bottlenecks. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in August increased 28.8%…
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Housing Starts Weaken in July
A sharp decline in single-family home construction is another indicator that the housing slowdown is showing no signs of abating, as rising construction costs, elevated mortgage rates and supply chain disruptions continue to act as a drag on the market. Overall housing starts fell 9.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.45 million units in July, according to a…
Read MoreNew Home Sales Fall to Lowest Pace in More than Six Years
In a further sign that the housing market continues to weaken, new home sales in July fell to their lowest level since January 2016. The tepid sales pace matches declining builder confidence since the beginning of the year as the industry grapples with supply chain disruptions that are delaying new home building projects and raising housing costs as mortgage interest…
Read MoreHousing Permits Decline in March
The single-family housing market continued to show signs of softening in March as permits and starts declined due to rising mortgage interest rates and ongoing supply chain bottlenecks that continue to delay construction projects and raise home building costs. Due to strong multifamily production, overall housing starts increased 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.79 million units, according…
Read MoreThe Housing Affordability Challenge
Last month, I wrote about a recent report issued by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, also known as the “HOI,” which showed that just 54.2% of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of October and end of December were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $79,900. This is down from…
Read MoreIs The New Home Market Cooling?
I wrote recently about how the housing market continues to show strength, driven in part by buoyant builder sentiment, low inventories and high demand across all price points. That was back in the fall, and while all signs point to strong new home demand through this spring and summer, a new confluence of pressures could force a tamping down of…
Read MoreAll Fingers Keep Pointing to a Strong Housing Market
A measure we watch with great interest that speaks volumes about the outlook for the new home construction market is the Builder Sentiment Index tracked and published by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo, which is known as the Housing Market Index (HMI).
Read MoreHome Shoppers Are Increasingly Active
By: Pierre G. Villere Last month, I wrote about the lack of impact that Millennials are having on the housing market, one of the reasons that new home starts have not returned to even their annual historical averages dating back to 1961. But the National Association of Home Builders recently published some research that is very telling about the current…
Read MoreHousing Will Continue to Climb Higher in 2017
Fueled by a growing economy, solid employment gains and rising household formations, single-family production will continue on a gradual, upward trajectory in 2017, according to economists speaking at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.
Read MoreEconomists Predict Construction Industry Growth
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Chief Economist Anirban Basu, American Institute of Architects (AIA) Chief Economist Kermit Baker and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chief Economist Robert Dietz predicted continued growth for the construction industry in 2017 during a joint economic forecast.
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