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Economic Trends

March Housing Starts Surge Almost 20% to 15-Year High

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Housing Prices Photo

In new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, residential construction – housing starts – appear to have taken off in March, rocketing to nearly 15-year highs. This is welcome news, as a serious shortage of available homes has been constraining housing sales recently. An increase in construction will help add inventory for sale. This shortage emerged after a protracted period of sales growth as urban dwellers left over-crowded cities during the time of COVID-19 for more spacious digs in the suburbs.

See more on the burst of housing starts in March

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Consumer Confidence Rebounds to Highest Level in a Year

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Here’s some good news! In a report by the National Association of Home Builders’ writer Fan-Yu Kuo, we learn that consumer confidence in March jumped to its highest level in a year. This is the second month of increase for consumer confidence, after a more modest increase in February. This mini-trend suggests that confidence is building in consumers about their future…after a rough year.

See more on this report of Consumer Confidence…

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Sales of New and Existing Homes Drop in February

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New home sales are down - photo of a new home

Is Housing a Bubble About to Burst?

After a spectacular run in 2020, it looks as though housing may be taking a pause to regroup. Strata-gee reported last week that residential construction starts had dropped by 10.3% in February. Now we learn that sales of newly built single-family homes have also dropped in February, this time by a scary 18.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 775,000 units. On top of that, existing home sales also dropped in February, coming in at 6.22 million units or 6.6% off of January’s rate.

What’s going on in housing?…

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Are You Ready for the Coming Economic KABOOM?

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Photo of shoppers like you would see in an economic kaboom

Economic KABOOM? While tech has been largely immune to it, many industry segments have been struggling to get through the current recession (think transportation and hospitality) that enveloped the country when the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the U.S. early last year. Literally, for a period of weeks or even months, all businesses that were not considered essential services were shut down, bringing economic activity to a standstill. Now, like many folks, you may be expecting to see economic growth return as the country begins to climb out of the epidemic-ravaged economy. Perhaps you’re even expecting an economic boom.

But a growing number of experts say you are wrong – we won’t just have moderate economic growth coming out of this latest recession. We won’t even have an economic boom. Rather, they say we are headed towards an economic KABOOM.

See more on this approaching economic kaboom…

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February Housing Starts in Double-Digit Drop

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new home under construction, a housing start

The 2nd Month of Decline; Is Housing Turning?

In the latest government data on new residential construction, housing starts dropped in February by 10.3%. This is the second month-in-a-row that starts dropped, after falling 6% overall in January.

So what do analysts think this downward cycle means? Is the housing construction segment beginning a period of contraction?

See what is happening in housing starts…

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Pres. Biden Orders Supply Chain Review; This Might Not End Well for Tech

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all-electric Cadillac design at CES 2021

Auto Makers Now in the Driver’s Seat

Late last week, multiple news services reported that US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order directing a “broad review” of the supply chains for critical materials – critical materials that include, by the way, semiconductors. The fact is, this might not end well for Tech…

See why supply chain concerns are heightening…

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Forecasting What to Expect in 2021 When There are So Many Unknowables

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2021 forecast - Famous New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra

Famous New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra once said, “Forecasting is very difficult, especially when it’s about the future.” Yet another wise saying from one of history’s most quoted sages. Even so, lately many regular Strata-gee readers (some of my favorite Strata-gists), have been asking me to do just exactly that – predict the future.

That is such a risky business…only a fool would take such a challenge.

See this fool’s forecast for 2021…

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New Home Sales Show a Sharp Decline in November

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photo of a newly constructed home

In late December we got the latest data from the U.S. Commerce Department on the sales of new homes in November 2020. According to the government, new home sales showed a sharp decline in November. The fact that there was a decline itself was not as much of a surprise to analysts as much as how sharp that decline was that caught their attention.

Many analysts are suggesting that this decline in home sales is another indicator of a slowing economy.

See more on this key economic data point…

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October Housing Starts Gets Its Act Together, Shows Solid Growth

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Photo of a new home

For the last couple of months, I’ve reported that residential construction – commonly known as housing starts (as in starting construction) – have returned mixed results, suggesting the housing industry recovery was potentially stalling. Now, in new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, we see that housing construction began a more durable return to growth.

Learn more about the October housing starts data…

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Housing Starts Split Again in September for Good News/Bad News Result

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Housing Prices Photo

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released their latest report on residential construction for the month of September 2020. Like last month, the results on housing starts were mixed, with both good news for custom integrators and bad news for the overall industry – suggesting again that housing growth, while robust, is beginning to moderate.

See housing starts results for September…

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