Tag: housing boom

Business

Builder confidence up on strengthening housing market, but majority rate still rate it “fair” or “poor”

Though the reading is not at a point where more home builders view the current market for newly-built, single-family as “good” than “poor,” builder confidence improved three points to a 44 on the May edition of the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.   The monthly survey asks home builders to rate current […]

May 15, 2013

Business

Construction economists: spending on slow upward march, housing has long way to go

There are several pluses and minuses in today’s construction spending front, although the overall picture is trending upwards, agreed three construction economists participating in a Reed Construction Data forecast webinar today. “Construction is growing, but it is growing unevenly,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. Simonson sees growth in […]

May 10, 2013

Business

U.S. rental construction, lack of first-time home buyers a sign of “inferior housing recovery”?

Despite recent dips in construction spending and employment, the mood in the industry is, well, better. Better than it was last year anyway as 151,000 jobs have been added since then, the unemployment rate is down to 13.2 percent and spending is up 5 percent. As we’ve noted before, a lot of this has to […]

May 8, 2013

Business

Housing starts jump 7% in March to highest level since before recession

The housing recovery boom marches on. Following a month of stagnation in February, housing starts jumped 7 percent in March to their highest levels since June 2008, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Commerce Department. The big month pushed construction on houses and apartments over the seven figure threshold to a seasonally adjusted rate […]

April 16, 2013

Business

Construction materials prices flat in March as diesel price drop negates lumber and plywood increases

According to the latest Producer Price Index from Associated General Contractors of America, the prices for construction materials were flat in March. The AGC reports that although the prices of homebuilding materials including lumber and plywood, gypsum products, construction plastics, paint and roofing materials increased again in March, a plunge in diesel prices and declines in […]

April 15, 2013

Workforce

Washington Post: Housing hasn’t led to hiring boom because construction jobs already historically high

Though construction industry employment in the U.S. is steadily improving—adding 18,000 jobs in March amid a dreary overall jobs report—the numbers don’t match the boom the housing market is seeing. This has a lot of people searching for an answer. Recently, we shared with you one interesting theory from the Washington Post’s Neil Irwin. Irwin, […]

April 10, 2013

Business

Manufacturing growth slows despite increase in construction spending

The majority of financial analysts expected growth in the manufacturing sector to accelerate in March thanks to the boom in housing and increases in construction spending. However, companies reported “fewer new orders and less production” in March than in February, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the Institue for Supply Management’s purchasing manager’s […]

April 5, 2013

Business

Construction equipment investment expected to continue above average growth in 2013

Construction equipment investment is expected to continue to grow and an above average rate over the next three to six motnhs, according to the 2013 Equipment Leasing & Finance U.S. Economic Outlook from the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation. However, the ELFF warns that the rate of growth construction equipment has enjoyed “should continue to decline from […]

April 4, 2013

Business

Construction spending up 7.9 percent annually, home building at highest level in 4 years

Thanks to a surge in home building, construction spending grew 1.2 percent in February, according to seasonally-adjusted data from the U.S. Commerce Department. After a nine-month string of monthly increases was snapped with a 2.1-percent dip in January, construction spending is now at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $885.1 billion. Compared to February 2012, that […]

April 1, 2013

Workforce

Why isn’t construction hiring booming like housing? Hoarding.

Citing a phenomenon that might not make much sense to those outside of the industry, Neil Irwin took to the Washington Post’s Workblog recently to discuss why construction job growth, though recovering, isn’t quite matching the numbers of the booming housing market. Just yesterday we reported that the annual rate on home starts grew in […]

March 21, 2013