Outdoor Features & a Laundry Room Among Most Wanted Features

By Housing
The two most wanted features in a home are a laundry room and a patio, according to NAHB’s latest study on buyer preferences—What Home Buyers Really Want Study*.  Buyers in the study were given a list of 200+ features of the home and the community and asked to rate each one on a consistent scale…

Open Construction Jobs Rising

By Housing
Due to tightened monetary policy, the count of total job openings for the entire economy has trended lower over the last year. This is consistent with a cooling economy that is a positive sign for future inflation readings. However, the number of open jobs for the aggregate economy was relatively unchanged in February per the…

February Gains for Single-Family Construction Spending

By Housing
NAHB analysis of Census data shows that private residential construction spending rose 0.7% in February, the third month of gains in a row. It stood at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of $901.1 billion. The monthly increase in total construction spending is attributed to more single-family construction and improvements. Spending on single-family construction rose 1.4%…

2023 State-Level GDP Data

By Housing
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 49 states and the District of Columbia in 2023 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Delaware is the only state to report an economic contraction last year. The percent change in real GDP ranged from a 5.9 percent increase in North Dakota to a 1.2 percent…

State & Local Tax Revenues: 2023 Fourth Quarter Analysis

By Housing
The Census Bureau’s Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue shows a 1.3% increase in property taxes paid, rising from $769.2 to $778.9 billion (SA, trailing four quarter sum) in the fourth quarter of 2023. Total annual state & local tax revenue was $2.039 trillion, also 1.3% higher than 2022. The 1.3% quarterly increase…

Home Prices Increase for January

By Housing
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index (HPI), reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, rose at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.36%. Although this rate has been slowing the previous four months, January saw its first uptick from 2.32% in December 2023.   On a year-over-year basis, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home…