According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), the custom home share decreased to 17.8 percent of all single-family homes started in 2020—the lowest the annual custom home share has been since the 2005 re-design of the SOC.  The custom home market consists of contractor-built and owner-built houses—homes built one at a time for owner occupancy on… Read More ›

The last four weeks’ mortgage purchasing and refinancing activities, as reflected in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest weekly application surveys, shows a general withdrawal of refinancing and a very slight increase in purchasing from the prior month. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate hovered 3 basis points above 3 percent, consistently, for the last three weeks. In the latest week,… Read More ›

In August, consumer prices increased at its slowest pace since February 2021. Prices for several travel-related categories declined in August, as the delta variant spreads. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.3% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, following an increase of 0.5% in July. Excluding the volatile food and… Read More ›

The number of women employed in the construction industry grew slightly in 2020, rising to around 1.17 million, while the construction industry lost 587,000 jobs in 2020 when the pandemic hit the economy. Currently, women make up a growing share of the construction employment, up to 10.9% in 2020 from 10.3% in 2019. As the construction skilled labor shortage remains… Read More ›