By Brian Burke, CEO and Founder, Plans4Less
The year ahead for residential and commercial construction professionals will be choppy as they navigate higher interest rates, a softer housing market, increasing inflation, jumpy material costs and a firmer recession taking hold.
The ConTech professionals we speak with have a universal desire to streamline workflows, reduce the number of touch-points and limit headcounts on each and every process. They basically want to do ”more done with less”. Re-engineer as many work flows to make them fast, easy, accurate and reliable. Done right the first time. On time and on budget. Control what they can control as the outside environment is fraught with the headwinds we have been discussing.
2023 Plans4Less Outlook:
1. Federal Reserve Headwinds:
The Fed says, at their 1/4/22 Meeting, that they see rates remaining high for “sometime” – while taking the target range for the benchmark fed funds rate to 4.25%-4.5%, its highest level in 15 years. What does this mean for home buyers? Well, the Fed’s fight against inflation has caused mortgage demand to plunge 13.25% to end 2022 – and that trend should be in place for “some time”. Demand for refinancing, which is a super-sensitive indicator, is down 87% from the same period in 2021 – and that trend, yes, should be in place for “some time”. As the Irish say, “may the wind always be at your back.” In this case, the Fed has made the wind go squarely in the face of the construction market for 2023.
