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DataDigest: Construction costs easing for homebuilders

Housing Wire

New home construction exploded early in the pandemic as soaring home demand squeezed existing inventory nationwide, giving homebuilders a much bigger share of a shrinking pie. Index values for most construction inputs are down from 2022 but remain above pre-pandemic levels. Index values for December published last week.

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Residential construction jobs slowly return

Housing Wire

unemployment rate recorded in February 2020, just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The construction sector added a total of 31,000 jobs in November, on par with the two prior months. It was a strong month for construction,” First American deputy chief economist Odeta Kushi said in a statement. “We While this is a 0.4%

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Employment gains could help housing inventory

Housing Wire

Sectors that were hit hardest by the pandemic led job growth last month, with jumps in leisure, hospitality, public and private education and construction – good signs for the housing industry. For housing, March gained 110,000 jobs in construction – a positive sign in an industry struggling with supply constraints.

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Residential construction jobs now 7.6% above pre-COVID level

Housing Wire

After a month of very little change in April , the construction sector had a solid month of job growth in May, according to the U.S. Construction gained 36,000 jobs in May, with residential building adding 5,000 jobs and residential specialty trade contractors gain 11,700 jobs. The post Residential construction jobs now 7.6%

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Logan Mohtashami unpacks the slow train wreck that’s been happening in housing inventory

Housing Wire

I always try to focus people on the total inventory data until we get inventory back into a range of 1.52-1.93 million; we are still in a savagely unhealthy housing market because the price growth we have seen since 2020 has more to do with supply than demand. Months are homes under construction 0.8 Then this happened.

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Special report: Jacksonville’s brokerage competition visualized

Housing Wire

Those advantages, coupled with cheap land, made the city a favorite for homebuilders like DR Horton and Lennar that brought plenty of new inventory to market. In this environment of high rates and tight inventory, brokerages have had to become sharp elbowed. Listings jumped at both the state and city levels in 2021 and 2022.

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Why we can’t build our way out of this hot housing market

Housing Wire

Because that period followed a housing boom and bust when inventory was overbuilt. We first had to whittle down the excess inventory and get our financial house in order (i.e., million until 2020-2024. We ended 2020 with just 1,380,000 starts. We still have not seen housing starts begin the year at the level.