Articles

Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes fell three points in September to 46, the lowest level since May 2014 with the exception of the spring of 2020, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Read More

Consumer sentiment rose 2.2% in early September to 59.5, according to the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. This represents an 18.3% decline year over year. Read More

"Mortgage rates topped 6% this week, their highest level since 2008, giving a jolt to home buyers who last year were paying less than half that,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Read More

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August 2022 were $683.3 billion, an increase of 0.3% from the previous month, and 9.1% above August 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Read More

Most economic forecasters feel that the U.S. economy will enter a recession sometime over the next year. Some feel that we are already in one. In this view, high rates of inflation and the Federal Reserve Board’s response of aggressively raising interest rates to rein in inflation will slow consumer spending, business investment and job growth. We’ll see, but many of those same economists feel that spending on the construction of buildings will not respond to an economic slowdown until at least the latter part of 2023 Read More

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.1% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis after being unchanged in July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Read More

In the month of July, Spain exported to the U.S. a record amount of tiles: 4.7 million square meters, according to D. Grosser Consulting. Read More

New findings from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) show a shift in home building activity over the past 30 months, with notable slowing in large, metro urban areas as a result of initial Covid migration effects followed by declines in housing affordability in high-cost and highly regulated markets as interest rates increased. Read More

"Home buyers are feeling the pinch of rising costs more than renters,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Read More

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 4.1% in Q2 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, as output decreased 1.4% and hours worked increased 2.7%. Read More