Where Residential Construction Thrives: Metro Area Hotspots for Jobs and Businesses

By Housing
The residential construction industry plays a crucial role in driving economic growth and local community development. It has a lasting impact on local communities by creating jobs, improving infrastructure, boosting local businesses, and enhancing property values. The residential construction industry is more reliant on labor than capital in the United States. As of October 2024,…

Construction Labor Market Continues to Ease

By Housing
After a period of slowing associated with declines for some elements of the residential construction industry, the count of open construction sector jobs trended lower in the October data, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The data indicates the demand for construction labor market remains weaker than a year…

HBGI Q3 2024: A New Status Quo for the Geography of Residential Construction?

By Housing
Residential construction has remained in low density suburbs and outlying areas, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ latest release of the Home Building Geography Index (HBGI). This trend is driven by persistent factors that continue to affect housing affordability including a limited supply of buildable lots, rising construction costs, and a shortage of…

Apartment Completions Rise Resulting in Slower Absorption Rates

By Housing
The percentage of new apartment units that were absorbed within three months of completion rose from 50% to 55% in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s latest release of the Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units (SOMA). The survey covers new units in multifamily residential buildings with five or…

Small Gain for Multifamily Built-for-Sale Construction

By Housing
According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the count of multifamily, for-rent housing starts declined during the third quarter of 2024. For the quarter, 94,000 multifamily residences started construction. Of this total, 88,000 were built-for-rent. This was almost 14% lower than the third quarter of 2023. The market share of rental units of multifamily…

October New Home Sales Down on Higher Rates

By Housing
Steadily rising mortgage rates coupled with ongoing affordability challenges kept many potential home buyers on the sidelines in October. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in October declined 17.3% to a 610,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau….