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 ABI remained above 50 (neutral) in February 2018 at 52.0 points. All regions and sectors remained above 50 as well, except the Northeast at 47.5.
In March 2018, the HMI slightly declined to 70 with traffic and future sales also facing a decline. However, builders confidence stayed stable for current sales.
Construction Update
In February 2018, housing permits reflected an annual rate of 1.3M, 6.5% above its year-ago rate with both Single Family and Multi-Family permits showing yearly increases.
Housing starts in February 2018 were 4.0% below their year-ago rate. Single Family was up 2.9% at 902K starts, and Multi-Family was down 18.7% at 334K starts.
618K new Single Family homes were sold in February 2018, 0.5% above its the year-ago rate.
Economic Update
The third estimate of real GDP growth for Q4 2017 was 2.9% and the annual Real GDP for 2017 was 2.3%, both above the 2016 values.
The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported a 2.3% increase from the previous quarter in their Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) to 9.7 months in Q4 2017.
