Backward-looking data illustrate the degree of damage done by the sudden stop of the U.S. economy due to the public health response associated with the coronavirus. For example, there were 4,300 net job losses in residential construction in March, followed by a staggering 415,000 losses in home building and remodeling in April.

The leading edge of this job loss was recorded in the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data. In March, there were 618,000 layoffs in the construction sector. This was a striking increase over the 202,000 total in February and a 245% increase over the 179,000 count in March of 2019. More will be registered in the April data, due out from BLS in June.

The March data showed an increase of the layoff rate to 8.1% from 2.6% in February. This was the highest rate recorded in the history of the JOLTS data, which began at the end of 2001. The largest layoff rates were recorded in accommodation/food services (31.4%) and arts/entertainment/recreation (21.2%).

The one-year moving average estimates will reflect the sudden stop of the labor market in the spring as future months’ data are published. Given that job losses will be historic for April and May, the job openings rate and hiring rate will post significant declines. However, current anecdotal evidence and four weeks of gains for mortgage application data suggest that the residential portion of the construction industry labor market may now be bottoming out.

Over the first three months of 2020 – and prior to the impact of the coronavirus, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 220,416. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is an 18.9% increase over the March 2019 level of 185,336.

Year-to-date ending in March, single-family permits reported growth across the four regions ranging from 21.7% in the West to 14.9% in the Northeast. In multifamily permits, Northeast (3.8%) & West (10.7%) posted growth while Midwest (-9.2%) and the Southern (-1.2%) region posted declines.

Between March 2019 YTD and March 2020 YTD, 42 states saw growth in single-family permits issued while seven states and the District of Columbia registered a decline. Wyoming remained unchanged during this time. North Dakota recorded the highest growth rate during this time at 63.9% from 515 to 844, while single-family permits in the District of Columbia declined by 75.4%, from 134 in 2019 to 235 in 2020. The 10 states issuing the highest number of single-family permits combined accounted for 64.2% of the total single-family permits issued.

Year-to-date, ending in March 2020, the total number of multifamily permits issued nationwide reached 108,977. This is 1.6% ahead over the March 2019 level of 107,248.

Between March 2019 YTD and March 2020 YTD, 27 states recorded growth while 23 states and the District of Columbia recorded a decline in multifamily permits. North Dakota led the way with a sharp rise (523.5%) in multifamily permits from 17 to 106, while Maine had the largest decline of 71.7% from 669 to 189. The 10 states issuing the highest number of multifamily permits combined accounted for 64.9% of the multifamily permits issued.

The first quarter of 2020 witnessed dramatic economic news, owing to the outbreak of COVID-19. Among these changes were those of American homeowners, whose abilities to keep up with their mortgages were adversely affected by the economic injury brought on by the pandemic, as reflected in 2020’s first quarter results of the Mortgage Bankers’ Association’s National Delinquency Survey.

Since the end of 2019, on a national level, the percent of loans past due (i.e., at least 30 days or more past due) increased by 59 basis points to 4.36% of all loans currently being serviced. At a state level, all states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, experienced increases in the percent of loans past due from the previous quarter, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Most states, however, experienced declines in the share of mortgage delinquencies of all loans being serviced on a year-over-year basis.

The figure above shows that while the mortgage delinquency rate rose in the first quarter of 2020 from the previous quarter, the number of home loans serviced declined by about 250,000. On absolute terms, delinquent mortgages still increased, to about 1.7 million home loans past due. On a more positive note, the “seriously delinquent” rate, i.e., the percentage of loans 90 or more days past due or loans in the process of foreclosure, decreased from the fourth quarter of 2019 by 9 basis points to 1.67%.

Many homeowners that have been left in dire straits have alternatively chosen to avoid delinquency by applying for forbearance. As of the week ending May 3, the MBA cites that the share of all U.S. mortgages in forbearance shot up from the previous week by 37 basis points, thus making up almost 4 million mortgages in forbearance. For MBA’s survey, though, some servicers were asked to report mortgages in forbearance as delinquent if the payment was not made based on the original terms of the mortgage, as would be the case in natural disasters.

Last week, we published a post showing the number of children enrolled in public schools in different types of homes at the national level. This week, we look at the numbers by state, which vary widely. Outside of the District Columbia, the lowest numbers tend to be found in the New England states.

In particular, Vermont has the smallest average number with 0.21 public school child per housing unit, followed by Maine (0.23), Florida (0.25), and New Hampshire (0.27), as shown in Table 3. There is only 0.18 child enrolled in public education per housing unit in the District of Columbia. However, D.C. is generally different from the states, as it is entirely urban. States with the largest average number of children attending public schools are Utah with 0.58 public school child per unit, and Texas with 0.43 per unit, far above the national average of 0.34 per unit.

Table 4 shows the states with the fewest number of public school children in single-family detached units. Vermont has the fewest per unit (0.22), followed by Maine (0.24), West Virginia (0.29), Delaware (0.30), and Alabama (0.30). These states are also the states with the fewest number of children in all housing units (Table 3).

States with the fewest average number of children attending public school per multifamily unit are not concentrated in one regional areas (Table 5). States with the fewest number of public school children per multifamily unit are Wyoming with only 0.08 per multifamily unit, West Virginia (0.12), Pennsylvania (0.13), North Dakota (0.14), the District of Columbia (0.14), and Vermont (0.14).

NAHB has calculated  a complete set of detailed tables showing the number of public school children in different types of homes for each individual state (including the District of Columbia).