Every two weeks, we prepare a report focused on understanding market intelligence and analyzing construction industry data and trends.
This in-depth report is developed primarily for internal distribution, but because we want to keep construction professionals like you informed about the industry, we make this report available to anyone who's interested in reading it.
What's New In This Report?
Highlights
The ABI remained above 50 (neutral) in September 2018 at 51.1 points. Most of the regions and sectors remained above 50, with the South region and Institutional sector in the lead.
In October 2018, the HMI increased to 68 with mixed performance in the Current, Future and Traffic components of the index.
Construction Update
In September 2018, housing permits reflected an annual rate of 1.24M, a 1.0% decrease from its year-ago rate. However, Single Family is showing yearly increases.
Housing starts in September 2018 were 3.7% above their year-ago rate. Single Family was up annually by 4.8% at 871K starts, while Multi-Family was up 0.9% at 330K starts.
533K new Single Family homes were sold in September, 13.2% below the year-ago rate.
Economic Update
The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) projected annual spending for home improvements and repairs to grow 7.7% in Q4 2018 reaching $338B.
The advanced estimate of real GDP growth for Q3 2018 was 3.5%, a decrease from the previous quarter's growth of 4.2%.
