Articles

Personal income increased $70.7 billion, or 0.3 percent at a monthly rate, while consumer spending decreased $95.2 billion, or 0.6 percent, in December. Read More

The Federal Reserve signaled it would begin steadily raising interest rates in mid-March, its latest step toward removing stimulus to bring down inflation, reports the Wall Street Journal. Read More

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, following an increase of 2.3 percent in the third quarter. Read More

Driven by strong buyer demand and the expectation of higher mortgage rates, new home sales ended the year on a strong note, reaching their highest level since March 2021. Read More

Sales of new single‐family houses in December 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 811,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 11.9% above the revised November rate of 725,000 but 14.0% below the December 2020 estimate of 943,000. Read More

Home prices made a 18.8% annual gain in November, down from 19.0% in the previous month, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions.  Read More

The hotel industry has found some assurance in the recent resurgence of travel demand and the steady increase in hotel booking numbers over recent months. Pandemic exhaustion and pent-up demand for “get-aways” have led to a growing number of Americans becoming more open to travel. In addition to leisure travel, the business sector has a strong desire to travel and meet in person. Read More

Rental housing demand came roaring back in the second year of the pandemic, reducing vacancy rates and driving up rents, according to America’s Rental Housing 2022, a new report released by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The report indicates that some of the rental rebound reflects the lack of inventory in the for-sale market, which has kept many higher-income renters from buying homes. At the same time, however, many lower-income households, and especially lower-income households of color, still struggle to pay the rent.  Read More

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released its NAHB/Royal Building Products Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the fourth quarter, posting a reading of 83, up four points from the fourth quarter of 2020. The finding is a signal of residential remodelers' confidence in their markets, for projects of all sizes. Read More

Catalina Research has released its latest Kitchen and Bath Quarterly Update. According to the report, U.S. kitchen and bath product sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) continued to experience strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2021, despite a slowdown in housing demand. Kitchen and bath product sales could have increased by 13.5 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 18.8 percent over the first nine months of 2021. Read More