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 March 2018 at 51.0 points. All regions and sectors remained above 50 as well, except Institutional at 49.7 and Northeast at 49.0.
In April 2018, the HMI slightly decreased to 69 with current and future sales facing a decline. However, builders confidence stayed stable for the Traffic component of HMI.
Construction Update
In March 2018, housing permits reflected an annual rate of 1.35M, a 7.5% increase from its year-ago rate with both Single Family and Multi-Family permits showing yearly increases.
Housing starts in March 2018 were 10.9% above their year-ago rate. Single Family was up 5.2% at 867K starts, and Multi-Family was up 23.8% at 452K starts.
694K new Single Family homes were sold in March 2018, 8.8% above its the year-ago rate.
Economic Update
The advance estimate of real GDP growth for Q1 2018 was 2.3% and the real GDP for Q4 2017 was 2.9%, both above the previous year values.
In March 2018, construction final demand prices and construction industry goods saw a growth of 3.6% and 5.8%, respectively, from its year-ago value.
