Articles

Mohawk reported net sales of $2.8 billion for Q1 2023, a 6.7% decline compared to sales of $3.0 billion in Q1 2022. Read More

Personal income increased $67.9 billion, or 0.3 percent at a monthly rate, while consumer spending increased $8.2 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, in March. Read More

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to the "advance" estimate. In the fourth quarter of 2022, real GDP increased 2.6 percent. Read More

After more than a decade of continuous growth, annual spending on improvements and repairs to owner-occupied homes is expected to decline by early next year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The LIRA projects that year-over-year expenditures for homeowner improvements and maintenance will post a modest decline of 2.8 percent through the first quarter of 2024. Read More

After more than a decade of continuous growth, annual spending on improvements and repairs to owner-occupied homes is expected to decline by early next year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Read More

Supported by gains in the U.S. construction and housing markets and robust overall economic growth, U.S. ceramic tile consumption increased for the first time since 2018, according to the Tile Council of North America (TCNA). At Coverings 2022, TCNA Executive Director Eric Astrachan reported that total U.S. ceramic tile consumption in 2021 was 3.11 billion sq. ft., up 9.9% from the previous year. Read More

With the U.S. residential sector slowed by rising mortgage rates and inflation, supply chain issues, and labor shortages, the U.S. ceramic tile market experienced a slight downturn last year, according to the Tile Council of North America. The U.S. Census Bureau reported new home starts declined for the first time since the beginning of the Great Recession. The 1.56 million units started in 2022 were a 2.9% decrease from the preceding year. Hindered by rising mortgage rates and record-high average sales prices, new single-family home sales fell for the second year in a row. The 644,000 units sold in 2022 represented a 16.4% decline from the previous year. Read More

Construction is one of the most fragmented industries in our economy. Although there are almost eight million construction workers nationally, the average size of a construction firm with payrolls is less than a dozen employees, and that figure doesn’t factor in that more than 20 percent of construction workers are self-employed. This fragmentation can be beneficial for the flooring industry because the scale of the customer base means that few have enough purchasing power to negotiate meaningful concessions. The flip side, however, is that it creates a sales and marketing challenge to reach all these potential customers. Read More

With the U.S. residential sector slowed by rising mortgage rates and inflation, supply chain issues, and labor shortages, the U.S. ceramic tile market experienced a slight downturn last year. Read More

Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in April rose one point to 45, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Read More