Please click here to see the edition of BuilderBytes for 12/19/14 on the Web.
Please click here to see the edition of BuilderBytes for 12/12/14 on the Web.
My column for the December 2014 issue of Builder and Developer magazine is now posted online.
For this issue, entitled "Homebuilding Year in Review,"
I provided my annual review of the past year and what we can expect in 2015. An
excerpt:
Last year, I wrote about a housing rebound that seemed to finally have solid legs after a few false starts since the Great Recession. The good news for 2014 is that both the economy and the housing market have continued their slow yet gradual climb back to normal.To read the entire column, click here.
Indeed, the NAHB's Leading Markets Index, which measures how well metropolitan areas are performing relative to their last ‘normal’ market, rose to .90 in the third quarter of 2014. This means that the combination of permits, prices and employment levels are back to 90 percent of where they should be at a national level, although most of this rebound has been due to new permits and rising prices more than robust, uniform employment gains...
November’s numbers cap the best three-month period of labor market expansion since the financial crisis and keep the country on track for a year of job growth unseen since the late 1990s...The unemployment rate kept steady at 5.8 percent, its lowest mark since July 2008..."From the original press release:
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 321,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains were widespread, led by growth in professional and business services, retail trade, health care, and manufacturingTo read the entire release, click here.
In November, the unemployment rate held at 5.8 percent, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 9.1 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.2 percentage points and 1.7 million, respectively.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men rose to 5.4 percent in November. The rates for adult women (5.3 percent), teenagers (17.7 percent), whites (4.9 percent), blacks (11.1 percent), and Hispanics (6.6 percent) showed little change over the month. The jobless rate for Asians was 4.8 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 2.8 million in November. These individuals accounted for 30.7 percent of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed declined by 1.2 million...
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 321,000 in November, compared with an average monthly gain of 224,000 over the prior 12 months. In November, job growth was widespread, led by gains in professional and business services, retail trade, health care, and manufacturing..
Construction employment also continued to trend up in November (+20,000). Employment in specialty trade contractors rose by 21,000, mostly in the residential component. Over the past 12 months, construction has added 213,000 jobs, with just over half the gain among specialty trade contractors...
Please click here to see the edition of BuilderBytes for 12/05/14 on the Web.
