Per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) survey through the week ending July 1, total mortgage activity decreased, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate reaching 5.8% on average. The latest week’s rate decreased to 5.74%, declining for the second straight week but still above pandemic levels. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased by 5.4%… Read More ›

The construction labor market remains tight, but the total number of open construction sector jobs has likely reached a cyclical peak as economic activity slows in response to tighter financial conditions. The count of open construction jobs was little changed in May, falling from 440,000 in April to 434,000. The April reading remains the highest measure in the history of… Read More ›

The earlier June post highlighted the rising number and share of Hispanics in the construction industry. Hispanics now account for almost a third of the construction workforce, according to the 2021 Current Population Survey. In this post, we focus on the regional and state-level differences in the racial and ethnic composition of the construction labor force. The share of Hispanics… Read More ›

NAHB analysis of the Census Construction Spending data shows that private residential construction spending stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $938.2 billion in May. It was 0.2% up over the upwardly revised April estimates of $935.9 billion. On a year-over-year basis, total private construction spending was 19% higher. These monthly gains are largely attributed to the growth… Read More ›

Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased in 46 states and the District of Columbia in the first quarter of 2022. New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Michigan saw modest GDP growth. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the percent change in real GDP ranged from 1.2 percent increase in New Hampshire to 9.7 percent decline in Wyoming. Nationwide, growth… Read More ›

The top 10 builders captured 34.2% of new single-family home closings in 2021, the highest percentage on record based on data released by BUILDER Magazine. This share represents 264,426 closings out of the 774,000 new single-family home sales reported by the U.S. Census in 2021. Nevertheless, these closings only represent 23.5% of single-family starts, a broader measure of home building… Read More ›