The NAHB and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) recently reported that housing shows continued signs—albeit minor—of improvement, especially compared with last year’s numbers. Those positive indicators include growth in single-family sales, construction spending, and builder confidence levels. Multifamily and commercial seem to be getting healthier as well.
According to the NAHB, sales of new-construction, single-family houses have increased for the past two months while housing starts rose 3.9 percent in October. Existing home sales also rose moderately in October, but they are slightly lower than last year, primarily due to lack of available financing. Multifamily housing sales have increased nearly 90 percent over the past 12 months.
The AGC reports an uptick in construction spending both for residential and commercial projects. Residential spending grew by 3.4 percent in October and is nearly 2 percent above last year. Commercial spending is showing double-digit improvements when compared with 2010 numbers.
The NAHB partners with Wells Fargo to track builder confidence levels as a prediction of future trends through their Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI showed builder confidence climbing 6 points over the past two months with a total of 20 in November. That is still well below the magic number of 50, however, which would indicate an overall positive market. But economists and industry pros continue to be hopeful that market conditions are improving.
