Construction spending declined slightly to end 2019. According to the Census Bureau, December spending dipped 0.2% below the revised November estimate. However, construction spending in December was 5% above that of December 2018. "A solid gain in residential spending was not enough to offset a drop in nonresidential," states a release from Wells F...

Existing-home sales improved to a near two-year high in December. Sales jumped 3.6% from November, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) earlier this week. Total sales, which include single-family homes, townhomes, condos and co-ops, increased 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.54 million. Sales are up nearly...

Privately-owned housing starts exploded in December to a 13-year high. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Census Bureau, housing starts increased 16.9% in December above November's revised estimate. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,608,000 is nearly 41% better than December 2018. "The big jump in the last month...

August housing starts saw the largest gain in 12 years, exceeding experts' predictions in July with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.36 million units. Rising more than 12%, the surge in housing starts was attributed to a signification increase in the multifamily housing sector, where the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said start...

New U.S. single-family home sales are on the decline as is the median home price. The latest release from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows sales of new single-family homes slipped nearly 13% in July from June's revised rate. However, sales are up more than 4% from July 2018. The median sales price dipped j...

Construction input prices experienced a modest comeback in July, but results have left some builders unsettled with the year-over-year (YOY) findings. Despite the 0.8% expansion month-over-month (MoM), input prices fell more than half a percent YOY in part by notable declines in natural gas, unprocessed energy materials, crude petroleum and softwoo...

The Dodge Momentum Index continues to decline after peaking in July 2018. The Index, released earlier this week by Dodge Data & Analytics, slipped 4.6% in July from the revised June reading. The index measures the first report of nonresidential building projects in the planning phase, resulting in an indication of nonresidential spending for a ...

Construction spending is on the decline in the U.S. Construction spending dropped 1.3% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.287 trillion, according to a release from the Census Bureau earlier this week. June's data is also 2.1% below the June 2018 estimate. A decrease in public works projects and wet weather are the likely culprits be...

Fresh into the dog days of summer, the U.S. construction industry is assessing contractors' confidence levels for nonresidential construction. According to Associated Builders and Contractors' (ABC) latest Construction Confidence Index (CCI) results in May, contractors are optimistic about sales expectations in the near future, yet show some uncert...

Monthly fluctuations are common, which is why construction economists weren't surprised to see a decrease in June's construction input prices. What experts didn't expect was the same decrease in year-over-year readings for the first time in nearly three years. On July 12, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported a 1.3% decrease in month-o...