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Shocking 30+% Drop in Housing Construction Starts; But a Turnaround May Be Lurking

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a machine gets ready to start constructing a housing project

Existing Home Sales Decline as Well

I’ve been saying for a while now that really, really tough economic data was coming. Even though it was obvious to many of us that the economy was crashing – thanks to COVID-19 – it takes time for backward-looking statistics to catch up. Well, now they’re starting to catch up and with overall residential housing construction starts dropping an eye-popping 30.2% in April…they are ugly.

But read on to see why one piece of data seems to suggest that a housing turnaround make be lurking in the near future – or is even already here…

Learn more about this new data on the housing market…

[Read more…] about Shocking 30+% Drop in Housing Construction Starts; But a Turnaround May Be Lurking

New Home Sales & Housing Starts Decline in February, A Hint of Things to Come

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The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development announced this week that sales of newly built residences fell in February 2020. Housing starts also fell in February. This housing market downturn is likely a precursor to much more dramatic declines when figures for March 2020 are reported – a time period when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began to really take hold across America, forcing State and City governments across the U.S. to order residents of all non-essential businesses to stay home.

See more on the drop in new home sales…

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Housing Construction Starts Grow Again in November

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housing construction starts photo

The Census Bureau, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, released new home construction data for November, offering details on what is generally known as housing starts. The overall construction starts – which includes both single-family and multi-family homes – both showed increases over the revised numbers for October, suggesting a return to economic stability after a period of concern about a possible slowdown.

See more on housing construction starts…

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Oct. Housing Data is Split: Home Construction UP, Home Sales DOWN

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Photo of a new home for sale

In new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the readings appear split with housing starts showing increases while new home sales declined. Housing, a prime component of the overall U.S. GDP has been in a bit of a swell over the last couple of months, driven largely by low interest rates stimulating demand for homes.

See more on the latest housing data…

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More Mixed Signals from Housing – Starts Down, Sales Up

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Housing - Photo of newly constructed home

In the choppy waters of today’s current economy, we continue to get mixed signals – this time from the housing market. Last week, we learned that residential construction starts declined in June by 0.9% below the rate in May. This week, we find that sales of newly built homes in June increased by 7% as compared to sales in May.

What should we make of developments in housing?…

[Read more…] about More Mixed Signals from Housing – Starts Down, Sales Up

The Volatile ‘Fits & Starts’ of Housing Starts

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Census Bureau Logo

As regular Strata-gee readers know, I follow basic economic data for our readers. Not all economic data, just that data I feel are germane to the custom integration and consumer electronics industries. Normally, that is a fairly sane and sedate task – but lately, it has gotten a bit crazy, with wild up/down swings the likes of which I haven’t seen since the last great recession. Take housing starts, for example…

See the latest data on housing starts…

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New Housing Data Continues to Point to a Downturn

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Housing Prices PhotoAs I write this on Wednesday, December 19th the stock market has closed down 351.98 points or nearly 1.5% to its lowest level of the year, according to CNBC. The broader S&P 500 Index also closed at a 2018 low. But as bad as this news is, perhaps even more concerning are two key indicators for the housing market – single-family housing starts and homebuilder sentiment – both of which showed disappointing results.

See more red economic flags from the housing market… [Read more…] about New Housing Data Continues to Point to a Downturn

House of Horrors: Sept. Housing Starts Drop 5.3%

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Photo of a home being builtI’ve been sounding the alarm about a housing slowdown for a couple of months now, starting with this overall look at how a housing industry-led recession could be just around the corner. Now, new data on housing, the industry that was a major driver of the last recession, continues to offer a bearish outlook with housing construction starts dropping a significant 5.3% in the month of September.

See more on the latest data from the Commerce Department on housing starts… [Read more…] about House of Horrors: Sept. Housing Starts Drop 5.3%

Good Economic Sign: November Housing Starts Shoot Up

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Photo of construction workersIn a result that exceeded economists’ estimates, November overall housing starts jumped an impressive 10.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.173 million units.  Well over the revised October rate of 1.062 million units, it also exceeded the 1.007 million units in November last year by 16.5%.

More importantly for our industry, single-family home construction rates jumped as well.

See more on this encouraging economic data… [Read more…] about Good Economic Sign: November Housing Starts Shoot Up

Builders Group Holds Mid-Year Construction Forecast Meeting; Economists Cautiously Optimistic

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Mid-Year construction title slideThe Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., (ABC) a builders trade association, held their third annual Mid-Year Construction Forecast presentation this week…inviting economists from three industry-related associations to present their outlook on the construction industry. This year, the invited economists included Kermit Baker (American Institute of Architects, AIA), David Crowe (National Association of Home Builders, NAHB), and their own Anirban Basu (ABC).

The economists this year were, overall, cautiously optimistic – with a heavy emphasis on caution.

See more on the presentations from the construction industry economists… [Read more…] about Builders Group Holds Mid-Year Construction Forecast Meeting; Economists Cautiously Optimistic