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?
Highlights
The Homeownership rate increased to 64.2% in Q4 2017 indicating the decline in the national rate has leveled off. Regionally rates varied, but all also experience yearly increases.
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) dropped in January 2018 to 143.7, 5.1% below December's score of 151.5; the commercial and institutional building components also fell by 0.9% and 7.8%, respectively.
Construction Update
The annualized value of Construction Put-in-Place was $1.25T in December 2017, 2.6% above its year ago activity.
The Construction Cost Index (CCI) and Building Cost Index (BCI) in February 2018 continued to show expansion in current pricing with an annual growth of 3.5% and 3.9%, respectively.
Economic Update
CPI-U which measures inflation increased by 0.5% in January 2018, following the 0.2% increase in December 2017.
44 of 51 large MSAs (1M+ population) showed year-over-year unemployment rate decreases in December 2017 with Ames, IA showing the lowest unemployment of 1.5%.
