Tag: home building: Page 4

Business

Building permits up in October, but government delays housing starts data for second month due to shutdown

Though the Commerce Department won’t release data on housing starts and completions until next month, it reports that building permits saw a sizable gain in October. Placing blame on the 16-day partial shutdown of the federal government during October, the Commerce Department says it won’t have the data for home starts and completions for the […]

November 26, 2013

Business

Construction crew rescues live deer from basement of house it’s building

Construction crews find all kinds of things on, and often underneath, the jobsite. Suffice it to say, it’s not often that it gives them a fight on its way out of the ground. But that’s exactly what happened when a crew composed of members from Tim Halbrook Builders and Steve Fischer Construction found a live, 9-point […]

November 11, 2013

Business

Construction spending falls 0.6% in June as government spending falls to lowest level since 2006

Snapping two consecutive months of increases, U.S. construction spending fell 0.6 percent in June to $884 billion due to larger decreases in nonresidential and government spending. The decline is the biggest seen in the last five months. Government construction spending fell 1.1 percent in June to $261 billion—it’s lowest level since 2006. Public residential construction […]

August 1, 2013

Business

Materials shortage pushes homebuilders even farther off the pace of demand

In addition to the skilled labor shortage currently keeping the construction industry from meeting the increased housing demand it has seen in the past 6 to 10 months, a shortage of building supplies is now keeping these contractors even further off pace, reports Reuters. According to the report, regional building materials makers—the companies that supply […]

July 29, 2013

Business

Home starts stumble 10% in June while single-family permits hit highest rate in 5 years

In what’s beginning to become a sustained pattern of ups and downs, the start of construction on new homes in the U.S. fell 9.9 percent in June, according to data from the Commerce Department Wednesday. June’s stumble likely resuscitates fears that the housing recovery isn’t as healthy as many thought a few months ago. May […]

July 17, 2013

Business

Home construction starts up 6.8% in May

After a tumble of 14.8 percent in April, U.S. home construction starts rose 6.8 percent in May, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In total, home builders began construction on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914,000 homes in May. That’s an improvement of 28.6 percent over the same time last year and […]

June 19, 2013

Business

Home prices see biggest gains in 7 years

In May, home prices saw their biggest gains in 7 years, according to a report from the New York Times citing data from the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index. The index of home prices, which covers 20 U.S. cities, indicated a 10.9-percent gain over last year at the same time. That’s the biggest increase […]

June 12, 2013

Workforce

Skilled labor shortage slows Michigan’s response to growing demand for new homes

After 60,000 of Michigan’s skilled home builders were put out of work during the recession, many left the state to find work elsewhere while some left the trade entirely, reports the Detroit Free Press. Michigan is the latest of several states around the country to report skilled labor shortages as demand for construction rebounds. The […]

June 11, 2013

Construction Equipment

Home construction boosts full-size pickup truck resale value by 7%

The resale value of three-year-old full-size pickup trucks has increased 7 percent in the past year, according to a report from Truck Trend. Citing data from the National Dealer Association (NADA), the report says the boost in resale values is due to the rebound in home construction coupled with a low supply in the full-size […]

May 16, 2013

Business

Housing starts tumble 16.5% in April, but surge in permits suggests continued recovery

The start of construction on homes fell drastically in April, one month after reaching a level of home starts the country had not seen since before the recession. However, a surge in building permits hints that the damage might not be too bad. Construction began on homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 853,000, […]

May 16, 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