Articles

While the residential sector has performed well during the pandemic, the commercial markets have suffered. Remote work has limited the need for office space. Online buying has cut into traditional brick and mortar retail activity. Reduced travel has decreased consumer spending in the hospitality and lodging markets. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that spending on commercial and industrial facilities declined almost 5 percent in 2020, and another 2 percent last year. Read More

Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2022, following an increase of 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021. Read More

Worsening affordability conditions stemming from growing supply chain disruptions and rising mortgage rates pushed new home sales lower in March. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in March fell 8.6 percent to a 763,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from an upwardly revised reading in February, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. New home sales are down 12.6 percent compared to March 2021. Read More

Sales of new single‐family houses in March 2022 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 763,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 8.6% below the revised February rate of 835,000 and 12.6% below the March 2021 estimate of 873,000. Read More

Total construction starts fell 12% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $903.8 billion, according to Dodge Construction Network. Nonresidential building starts lost 29%, in part due to the start of three large manufacturing facilities in the prior month. When those three large projects are removed, nonresidential starts in March would have risen 10%. Residential starts also fell 3%, and nonbuilding starts lost 2%. Read More

Expenditures for improvements and repairs to the owner-occupied housing stock are expected to grow throughout 2022 and into early next year, but at a decelerating pace, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.  The LIRA projects year-over-year increases in residential renovation and maintenance spending will peak at 19.7% in Q3 of this year before sliding downward to 15.1% in Q1 2023. Read More

U.S. home prices soared to a new record in March while mortgage rates continued to rise rapidly, slowing home sales in what has been the hottest housing market in more than 15 years, reports the Wall Street Journal.  Read More

The single-family housing market continued to show signs of softening in March as permits and starts declined due to rising mortgage interest rates and ongoing supply chain bottlenecks that continue to delay construction projects and raise home building costs. Due to strong multifamily production, overall housing starts increased 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.79 million units, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. Read More

CTDA Article from Italian Newpaper on Clay supply Shortage due to Ukraine Conflict Below is an article… Read More

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for March was 58.0, up from a score of 51.3 in February, according to The American Institute of Architects (AIA). Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings. Read More