Eye On Housing

• Multifamily Construction Data: 2nd Quarter 2019
  An elevated rental share of multifamily construction is holding typical apartment size below levels seen during the pre-Great Recession period. As multifamily developers build more for-sale housing units in the years ahead, the average size of multifamily homes is likely to rise. According to second quarter 2019 data, the average per unit square footage of multifamily housing construction […]
• Apartment and Condominium Confidence Rebounds to Positive Territory in Second Quarter
  Builder and developer confidence in the multifamily market strengthened in the second quarter of 2019, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Multifamily Market Survey (MMS). The MMS consists of two indices measuring supply and demand in the multifamily market: the Multifamily Production Index (MPI) and the Multifamily Vacancy Index (MVI). In the […]
• Contrasting Built-for-Rent and For-Sale New Single-Family Homes
  How do homes built-for-rent differ from more common for-sale new single-family homes? This is an important question given recent attention on the built-for-rent sector of the residential construction industry. Second quarter data for 2019 reveal that approximately 42,000 homes were built-for-rent over the last year, representing about 5% of single-family construction. Though this figure continues […]
• Existing Home Sales See First Year-Over-Year Gain in a Year, Boosted by Lower Mortgage Rates
  After a minor decline in June, existing home sales, released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), rebounded in July. Total existing home sales, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, climbed 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.42 million in July. On a year-over-year basis, sales were 0.6% up than a year ago, […]
• Townhouse Construction Weaker
  According to NAHB analysis of the most recent Census data of Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, townhouse construction slowed during the second quarter of 2019 after a strong 2018 performance. This market softness matches recent data in the NAHB HBGI, which showed weak construction activity for large metro suburban markets at the start of […]
• Flat Conditions for Custom Home Building
  NAHB’s analysis of Census Data from the Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design survey indicates custom home building was effectively flat over recent quarters. There were 49,000 total custom starts for the second quarter of 2019. This was down slightly compared to the second quarter of 2018 (50,000). Over the last four quarters, custom housing […]
• Homebuyer Preferences: Millennials vs. Other Generations
  A recent study by NAHB reveals that millennials have a much stronger desire for certain bathroom features relative to older generations. The report compiled survey data between 2007 and 2018 and found that the share of home buyers who want whirlpool tubs declines as the older generations age but stays relatively constant for millennials. As […]
• New Single-Family Home Size Continues Trending Lower
  New single-family home size decreased during the second quarter of 2019 as interest rates declined. According to second quarter 2019 data from the Census Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design and NAHB analysis, median single-family square floor area ticked down to 2,245 square feet. Average (mean) square footage for new single-family homes declined […]
• Texas Leads Job Gains in July
  Total nonfarm employment, seasonally adjusted (SA) increased by 2.2 million jobs, year-over-year (YoY), or 1.5% from July 2018 to July 2019. During this time, total nonfarm employment in the Western region increased by 2.1%. The South, Northeast, and Midwest recorded gains at 1.7%, 0.9% and 0.7% respectively, during this time. According to the Bureau of […]
• Flat Conditions for Single-Family Built-for-Rent Construction
  The number of single-family homes built-for-rent has held steady over the last year amidst declines for other forms of home construction.  (You can read more here on how single-family built-for-rent homes differ from for-sale construction.) According to NAHB’s analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, there were […]