Tag: housing: Page 5

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

Roadbuilding

The downtown parking/housing dynamic

Lots of words out there, especially recently, on the role that downtown parking plays in the life of a city. We’re seeing debates about who lives in the city with the biggest parking deserts, which city parking structures and lots create the worst heat islands and the emergence of “elastic parking spaces” where daytime parking […]

April 2, 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

Business

Smart, skilled class of contractors necessary to navigate worst recovery in modern history

In this era of partisan news both sides will spin any facts any way to make their side look better. So getting any kind of macro-level read on the real state of the economy is difficult if not impossible. But from what I’ve seen with my own two eyes and heard with my own two […]

March 26, 2013

Workforce

NAHB survey finds labor shortages in “all aspects” of home building

According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders, labor shortages are hurting the housing and economic recoveries here in the U.S. Since June 2012, residential construction firms are seeing a growing number of shortages in all positions in the industry including carpenters, excavators, framers, roofers, plumbers, bricklayers, HVAC, building maintenance managers and […]

March 25, 2013

Business

Permits, labor shortage cause delays as builders scramble to meet huge housing demand

“I’ve also never seen a market turn so quickly.” That’s what Kurt K. Colgan, a broker with Lyon Real Estate of Sacramento, California, recently told the New York Times about the recent housing boom. Despite how eagerly-awaited housing’s return has been, its sharp rebound has taken home buyers, sellers and builders by surprise. As a […]

March 25, 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

Business

Housing starts stall in February

After a big dip in January, housing starts basically stalled in February, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau. Construction began on houses and apartments at a seasonally adjusted rate of 917,000 in February, marking only a 0.8-percent increase from January’s revised estimate of 910,000. Despite the dip, the February rate […]

March 20, 2013