Every two weeks, Oldcastle Building Solutions Business Intelligence prepares a report focused on understanding and analyzing construction market data and trends.
This in-depth report is developed primarily for internal distribution, but Oldcastle Building Solutions exists to inform construction professionals like you, so we're making this report available for anyone who's interested in reading it.
What's New In This Report?
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HighlightsBuilders’ confidence dipped to 68 in April 2017, down 3 points from high in March March 2017 ABI jumped to 54.3 following two months near the neutral (50) mark |
Construction UpdateMarch 2017 Housing Permits up 17.0% since last year; Starts also up 9.2% in year New Single Family sales: 621K houses, 15.6% above the March 2016 estimate |
Economic Update33 of 51 large MSAs show 12-month unemployment decreases March 2017 CPI-U (Inflation) decreased 0.3% following 0.1% gain in February |
Key Takeaways
- The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) in April 2017 dipped 3 points to 68, following March 2017's high score of 71
- The Architectural Billings Index (ABI), a 9-12 month leading indicator for commercial construction in March 2017 jumped to 54.3
- Housing permits made gains in March 2017 to 1.3M, 17.0% above March 2016's rate; Single Family permits made gains over the year up 13.5%, as did Multi-Family permits which had 24.1% year-over-year growth
- Housing starts increased in March 2017 by 9.2% from last year to 1.2M: Single Family starts were up 9.3% and Multi-Family starts were up 8.8% from last year
- 621K new Single Family homes were sold in March 2017, 15.6% above the March 2016 rate
- 33 of the 51 large MSAs (1M+ population) showed year-over-year unemployment rate decreases in February 2017, with Salt Lake City and Denver having the lowest rate of 3.2%
- CPI-U, which indicates inflation, reversed in March 2017 with a 0.3% contraction, following a 0.1% increase in February 2017
