Posts Tagged ‘house’
Thursday, March 17th, 2022
Article source: ConstructConnect
(1) The latest inflation figure for the U.S., from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is +7.9%, a several-decades high. It’s the year-over-year percentage change in February’s all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI), for all urban consumers. The ‘core’ rate of inflation, which excludes price-volatile food and energy items, is +6.4% y/y. The fact everyone is being ensnared in the strong price advances is captured by the performance of the CPI sub-category ‘food at home’, which has ballooned to +8.6% y/y.
(2) The price of gasoline in February was +38.0% y/y and that was before the repercussions for oil markets from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made their way to the pump. In early March, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude crossed above $100 USD per barrel for the first time in eight years, dating back to 2014. Petrol’s price per gallon has risen above $4.50 in some states and it seems unlikely that will prove to be the ceiling.
(3) Some relaxation in the headline inflation rate will eventually come from resolution of the notorious supply chain bottlenecks that have tied up cargo shipments at ports and along transportation routes. Also, there will be an easing in general price inflation, as a corollary of slower economic growth, resulting from the increases in interest rates being implemented by central banks. The Federal Reserve has just upped the target range for its federal funds rate to between 0.25% and 0.50%. The Bank of Canada has lifted its overnight rate to 0.50%.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Construction, house, Labor, lumber, market, material, money, recovery, residential
Comments Off on 12 Mid-March Economic Nuggets
Wednesday, April 15th, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
- On the medical front, there are statistics on infection rates and mortality rates. Such data points are then held up against the figures that prevailed during the SARS and H1N1 outbreaks and the influenza scourge of 1918. On the business side, employment and GDP performances are assessed relative to what occurred during the Financial Crisis, the Great Depression and averages over of all recessions. There’s a lesson to be learned while swimming in this numbers-saturated sea: crises come and go, but statistics live forever.
- Add to the list of statistics a new one, the ‘compliance’ rate. The compliance rate is the proportion of the population that is adhering to ‘social distancing’. It’s a surprisingly high 90%. In initial ‘modeling’ about the spread of the disease, only 50% was the assumption made concerning the general population’s willingness to stay indoors to defeat this thing.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, banking, bids, build, Canada, cement, CMD, ConstructConnect, Construction, Construction services, coronavirus, COVID-19, developers, house, interest rate, lumber, material, money, oil, recovery, residential, shareknowledge, steel, tenders
Comments Off on Notes from the Trenches (14)
Wednesday, February 19th, 2020
Article source: ConstructConnect
There are certainly hints that the coronavirus outbreak could be the ‘Black Swan’ that will bring the decade-long period of U.S. economic expansion to an end. Are the statistics being reported out of China accurate? How virulent is the disease? Can it realistically be contained within limited geographic regions?
 Suspensions of airline routes, postponements of travel plans, and overseas cancellations of high-profile sporting events, as well as an underlying shift in peoples’ appetite for dining out, cruising their local mall, or gathering in a public space do not bode well for the next while at least, or until more clarity has been achieved concerning COVID-19’s damaging effects.
Nevertheless, the latest weeks have featured a particularly active generation of private sector and government agency data releases concerning the economy. Some of the best ‘nuggets’ are summarized below.
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Tags: Alex Carrick, Canada, China, ConstructConnect, Deficit, Economy, employ, employment, Energy Sector, home, house, Housing, interest rate, jobless, manufacturing, oil imports
Comments Off on 9 Mid-February Economic Nuggets
Wednesday, February 6th, 2019
Article source: ConstructConnect
There are 51 metropolitan statistical areas (CMAs) in the United States with population levels above one million. Drawing from ConstructConnect’s data pool for those 51 cities, Table 1 ranks the Top 25 markets in America for educational facility construction starts last year. (Map 1 showcases the Top 20.)
| Educational Facility Construction Starts |
| Top 25 Markets among Biggest U.S. Cities* |
| 2018 |
| Rank by |
|
|
|
|
|
| 2018 |
|
2017 |
2018 |
|
% Change |
| $ Value |
City / MSA |
($billions) |
|
2018/2017 |
| 1 |
New York, NY-NJ |
$3.290 |
$3.367 |
|
2.3% |
| 2 |
Dallas-Ft Worth, TX |
$2.355 |
$3.100 |
|
31.7% |
| 3 |
Los Angeles, CA |
$2.416 |
$2.626 |
|
8.7% |
| 4 |
Houston, TX |
$2.778 |
$2.592 |
|
-6.7% |
| 5 |
Seattle-Tacoma, WA |
$1.970 |
$1.560 |
|
-20.8% |
| 6 |
Chicago, IL |
$1.188 |
$1.219 |
|
2.6% |
| 7 |
Boston, MA |
$2.023 |
$1.217 |
|
-39.8% |
| 8 |
San Francisco – Oakland, CA |
$1.014 |
$1.145 |
|
13.0% |
| 9 |
Portland, OR-WA |
$0.370 |
$1.117 |
|
201.8% |
| 10 |
Philadelphia, PA |
$0.790 |
$1.090 |
|
38.0% |
| 11 |
Atlanta, GA |
$0.807 |
$0.991 |
|
22.8% |
| 12 |
Washington, DC – VA – MD – WV |
$1.279 |
$0.966 |
|
-24.5% |
| 13 |
San Diego, CA |
$0.543 |
$0.907 |
|
67.2% |
| 14 |
Baltimore, MD |
$0.917 |
$0.866 |
|
-5.6% |
| 15 |
Sacramento, CA |
$0.291 |
$0.852 |
|
193.0% |
| 16 |
Austin, TX |
$0.961 |
$0.762 |
|
-20.7% |
| 17 |
San Antonio, TX |
$1.142 |
$0.735 |
|
-35.6% |
| 18 |
Las Vegas, NV |
$0.286 |
$0.654 |
|
128.7% |
| 19 |
Orlando, FL |
$0.640 |
$0.613 |
|
-4.1% |
| 20 |
Salt Lake City, UT |
$0.660 |
$0.609 |
|
-7.7% |
| 21 |
Cleveland, OH |
$0.369 |
$0.586 |
|
59.0% |
| 22 |
Raleigh, NC |
$0.372 |
$0.574 |
|
54.3% |
| 23 |
Denver, CO |
$0.422 |
$0.573 |
|
35.8% |
| 24 |
Minneapolis – St Paul, MN – WI |
$0.843 |
$0.561 |
|
-33.4% |
| 25 |
Providence, RI-MA |
$0.306 |
$0.551 |
|
80.1% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| *There are 51 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the U.S. with populations exceeding onemillion. |
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| Data source and table: ConstructConnect ‘Insight’. |
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Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Economic, Economist, Growth, house, Housing, market, material, US
Comments Off on Top 25 U.S. Cities for School Construction Starts
Friday, January 25th, 2019
Article source: ConstructConnect
U.S. Census Bureau workers are off the job due to Washington’s partial funding shutdown. As a result, current statistics on housing starts, retail purchases and foreign trade are not available.
This is no minor matter. It will be difficult to accurately calculate national output – i.e., the important gross domestic product (GDP) measure – without reliable data on many of its key components. GDP growth, or lack thereof, is one key determinant of Federal Reserve interest rate moves. The Fed will struggle over whether to be ‘hawkish’, ‘dovish’, or stick with neutral.
Furthermore, the ramifications of economic data omissions are not solely limited to the U.S.
The U.S. and China are engaged in a trade skirmish, with tariffs on Chinese goods entering the U.S. slated to increase to 25% from 10% at the end of March, if there is no resolution. The U.S. has been running a huge trade deficit with China for years. In many months, it has been in a range of 40% to 50% of the total U.S. merchandise trade shortfall with all nations.
(more…)
Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Economics, Economist, Economy, election, employ, employment, Growth, home, house, Housing, job, jobless, Labor, market, material, money, real estate, residential, shutdown, US
Comments Off on Ramifications of U.S. Shutdown Ripple outwards to China and Canada
Thursday, January 17th, 2019
Article source: ConstructConnect
Due to its complexity, much of the subject matter concerning the economy requires detailed editorial commentary, often supported by relevant tables and graphs. This infographic looks at U.S. large project starts in high-tech data and fulfillment centers and hotels and conference centers.
At the same time, though, there are many topics (e.g., relating to demographics, housing starts, etc.) that cry out for compelling ‘short-hand’ visualizations.
Whichever path is followed, the point of the journey, almost always, is to reach a bottom line or two.
To provide additional value at its corporate blog site, ConstructConnect is now pleased to offer an ongoing series of Infographics.
These will help readers sort out the ‘big picture’ more clearly.
To view the latest infographic.
Also read the related article, “U.S. 2018 Large Project Starts by Type of Structure“.
Tags: ConstructConnect, Construction, Construction industry, Construction services, Economic, house, Labor, material, money
Comments Off on Infographic: U.S. Large Project Starts – High-Tech Data Centers and Hotels
Wednesday, January 16th, 2019
Article source: ConstructConnect
Construction spending in various type-of structure categories is driven by economic circumstances within specific industrial subsectors. For example, manufacturers set the pace in industrial construction.
Good health in the leisure and hospitality sector provides the backing for new hotel and motel work. And jobs levels in information and financial services, as well as in more rapidly expanding fields of endeavor such as computer systems and design services, establish the need for additional office space and commercial tower square footage. (See, “Shifts in Office Jobs and Implications for Commercial Tower Construction.”)
This article is the second in a series of seven that examines key industrial sectors to determine where they are most prominent regionally. Rankings of state strength in each industrial subsector are based on both ‘weight’ and ‘concentration’ of relevant employment. ‘Weight’ is simply the number of jobs in the industrial subsector in each state. ‘Concentration’ is each state’s number of jobs in the subsector divided by the state’s population. In effect, it’s a ‘per capita’ figure, except that it’s expressed as number of jobs per million population.
(more…)
Tags: Alex Carrick, ConstructConnect, Construction industry, Economic, Economics, Economist, employment, house, Housing, job, jobless, jobs, Labor, market, material, money
Comments Off on Series (2 of 7): Rankings of States by Industrial Subsector Jobs – Financial Services
Tuesday, June 20th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
ConstructConnect announced today that May construction starts, excluding residential activity, were +5% versus April. The modest rise fell a little short of the usual percentage change between April and May, due to seasonality, of +8%.
Versus May of last year, nonresidential starts in the fifth month of this year were +2.0%.
Compared with January through May of last year, the year-to-date volume of starts in 2017 has been +1.9%.
The starts figures throughout this report are not seasonally adjusted (NSA). Nor are they altered for inflation. They are expressed in what are termed ‘current’ as opposed to ‘constant’ dollars.
‘Nonresidential building’ plus ‘engineering/civil’ work accounts for a considerably larger share of total construction than residential activity. The former’s combined proportion of total put-in-place construction in the Census Bureau’s April report was 56%; the latter’s was 44%.
ConstructConnect’s construction starts are leading indicators for the Census Bureau’s capital investment or put-in-place series. Also, the reporting period for starts (i.e., May 2017) is one month ahead of the reporting period for the investment series (i.e., April 2017.)
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Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, build, Connect, construct, Economic, Economist, home, house, job, market
Comments Off on ConstructConnect’s YTD Starts +2% after May’s Rise of +5%
Friday, June 16th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
The accompanying table records the top 10 project starts in the U.S. for May 2017.
There are several reasons for highlighting upcoming large projects. Such jobs have often received a fair amount of media coverage. Therefore, people in the industry are on the lookout for when jobsite work actually gets underway. And, as showcase projects, they highlight geographically where major construction projects are proceeding.
Also, total construction activity is comprised of many small and medium-sized projects and a limited number of large developments. But the largest projects, simply by their nature, can dramatically affect total dollar and square footage volumes. In other words, the timing and size of these projects have an exaggerated influence on market forecasts.
(more…)
Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, build, Connect, construct, ConstructConnect, Economic, Economist, home, house, job
Comments Off on Top 10 Project Starts in the U.S. – May 2017
Tuesday, June 13th, 2017
Article source: ConstructConnect
Clichés are often true and it is the case that a picture can be worth a thousand words.
Below are six graphs recording 12-month moving averages of ConstructConnect ’s nonresidential construction starts.
When the value of the current month is higher than for the same month a year ago, the line will turn up; when lower, it will dip.
String a couple of similar positive or negative directional changes together over several months and one has a trend.
And that’s what the graphs are designed to do, show improving or deteriorating trends in a dozen major and more granular categories of construction work. (more…)
Tags: Alex Carrick, architect, build, ConstructConnect, Contruct, Economic, Economist, house, job, market
Comments Off on Nonresidential Construction Starts Trend Graphs – May 2017
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