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1 month ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz |Jing Fu
A slight decline in mortgage rates and limited existing inventory helped new home sales to edge higher in February even as housing affordability challenges continue to act as a strong headwind on the market. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in February increased 1.8% to a 676,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from a revised January number, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
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1 month ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Jing Fu |Robert Dietz
Limited existing inventory helped single-family starts to post a solid gain in February, but builders are still grappling with elevated construction costs stemming from tariff issues and persistent shortages related to buildable lots and labor. Overall housing starts increased 11.2% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.50 million units, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
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1 month ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Natalia Siniavskaia |Robert Dietz |Jing Fu
As the number of housing units under construction peaked in 2023, the industry set another record employing close to 11.4 million people, including self-employed workers. NAHB estimates that out of this total, 4.7 million people worked in residential construction, accounting for 2.9% of the U.S. employed civilian labor force.
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1 month ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz |Jing Fu |Natalia Siniavskaia
After a period of slowing associated with declines for some elements of the residential construction industry, the count of open construction sector jobs remained lower than a year ago, per the January Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The number of open jobs for the overall economy increased from 7.51 million in December to 7.74 million in January.
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1 month ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Rose Quint |Robert Dietz |Jing Fu
Profitability for single-family home builders reached the highest levels in more than a decade in 2023. Industrywide profit benchmarks are important because they allow companies to compare their financial performance against the entire industry. Doing so can guide resource allocation, budgeting, and target setting for costs and expense lines. More broadly, understanding industry benchmarks can lead to an improved business strategy and to higher financial results.
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1 month ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Jing Fu |Robert Dietz |Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington
New home sales decreased in January to a three-month low, as housing affordability continues to sideline potential home buyers. Mortgage rates are expected to remain above 6% throughout 2025, coupled with elevated home prices, creating a significant affordability challenge for both first-time buyers and those looking to upgrade.
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2 months ago | 
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz |Jing Fu
Builder sentiment fell sharply in February over concerns on tariffs, elevated mortgage rates and high housing costs. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes was 42 in February, down five points from January and the lowest level in five months, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
eyeonhousing.org | Jing Fu |Robert Dietz |Natalia Siniavskaia |Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington
The U.S. labor market finished 2024 with solid job growth and a decrease in the unemployment rate. In December, wage growth slowed. Wages grew at a 3.9% year-over-year (YOY) growth rate, down 0.3 percentage points from a year ago. Wage growth is outpacing inflation, which typically occurs as productivity increases. According to the Employment Situation Summary reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 256,000 in December.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz |Jing Fu
After a period of slowing associated with declines for some elements of the residential construction industry, the count of open construction sector jobs has remained lower than a year ago, per the November Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). However, the most recent data showed a slight gain for the number of open construction sector jobs. The number of open jobs for the overall economy increased from 7.84 million to 8.10 million in November.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
eyeonhousing.org | Natalia Siniavskaia |Jing Fu |Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington
As reported in a previous post, immigrants make up one in four workers in the construction industry. The share of immigrants is significantly higher (32.5%) among construction tradesmen. In some states, reliance on foreign-born labor is particularly evident, with immigrants comprising over 40% of the construction workforce in California and New Jersey, and 38% – in Texas and Florida.
