Articles

We see the total flooring market this year being up about 15%, which is unprecedented. We see more than 5% next year. The residential market has already exceeded the 2019 peak, and commercial should get there in 2022, 2023 at the earliest. Read More

"Affordability factors are clearly affecting new home sales," said Chuck Fowke, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Tampa, Fla. "A growing number of builders are limiting sales in order to manage supply chains, including access and cost factors associated with lumber, appliances, and other building materials. Policymakers need to find ways to improve the supply-chain, by facilitating more domestic production, or in cases where that cannot be done, suspending tariffs to allow for more imports." Read More

The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) and John Burns Real Estate Consulting (JBREC) reported that the Q1 2021 Kitchen & Bath Market Index (KBMI) has soared to a rating 79.8, its highest score since the inception of the index. Read More

"The MPI reversed trend and rose strongly in the second quarter of last year, one quarter before a similar turn-around in the multifamily housing starts data," said NAHB economist Robert Dietz. "Since then, multifamily starts have mirrored the MPI. The surge that we saw in the MPI for the first quarter of 2021 coincides with a similar surge in multifamily starts to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of more than 450,000 units. Based on these recent numbers, NAHB now expects a gain in multifamily starts this year." Read More

“This recent acceleration in the demand for design services demonstrates that both consumers and businesses are feeling much more confident about the economic outlook,” said AIA chief economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD.  “The pent-up demand for new and retrofitted facilities is keeping architecture firms in all regions and building sectors busy.”  Read More

"The decline in single-family permits indicates that builders are slowing construction activity as costs rise," said NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz. "While housing starts were strong at the beginning of the year, due to home builders constructing homes that were sold pre-construction, higher costs and limited availability of building materials have now paused some projects." Read More

"Builder confidence in the market remains strong due to a lack of resale inventory, low mortgage interest rates and a growing demographic of prospective home buyers," said NAHB chairman Chuck Fowke, a custom home builder from Tampa, Fla. "However, first-time and first-generation home buyers are particularly at risk for losing a purchase due to cost hikes associated with increasingly scarce material availability. Policymakers must take note and find ways to increase production of domestic building materials, including lumber and steel, and suspend tariffs on imports of construction materials." Read More

The hospitality sector was the hardest hit by the pandemic, and there is still a long way to go before a complete recovery. Yet as more people are vaccinated and group activity slowly resumes, flooring professionals are cautiously optimistic, and are looking forward to showcasing the designs we’ll see in our leisure spaces in the coming months. Read More

"After a surprising gain for housing affordability in 2020 that was driven by historically low interest rates, housing emerged as a bright spot for the overall economy," said NAHB chairman Chuck Fowke, a custom home builder from Tampa, Fla. "However, the first quarter reading of the HOI is an indication that affordability will further decline this year as higher lumber and other material costs and longer construction times will act as headwinds for the market."  Read More

"The remodeling market took a hit last year at the start of the pandemic, but it's completely turned around now," said NAHB Remodelers chair Steve Cunningham, CAPS, CGP, a remodeler from Williamsburg, Virginia. "Remodelers are now facing intense backlog on projects due to supply chain delays, continued labor shortages and an abundance of project leads." Read More