House Construction Tips
The house construction industry saw its second lowest point in March when it dropped by 10.8 percent. This is a sign that the crisis in the housing industry is not yet over, and is continuing to loom over the whole country. Both industry players and the regular homeowner or buyer sees this situation as a proof that there are more challenges coming their way in terms of housing, more specifically, construction.
According to the Commerce Department, new home construction dipped last month to an average annual rate of 510,000 house units. This is a record, being the second lowest figure in the last 50 years. This decrease was even worse than what experts and economists expected, proving that the construction industry is not seeing any light soon. The lowest figure was recorded in January 1959, with 488,000 annual rates.
According to the report, building permit applications also decreased last month, falling by 9 percent to 513,000 housing units as an annual rate. Again, this is a much lower figure than experts’ expectations, which is 550,000.
The construction industry is seen as a volatile sector. This was proven by February’s surge when an increase in the apartment activity happened. Construction of single-family houses did not increase nor
decrease significantly last month. On the other hand, new home construction of multifamily units dropped by 29 percent. This was following a 62.1 percent surge that happened in February. The statistics clearly show that the surge in February was not sustainable, and in fact even caused a big dip last month.
This setback in the housing and construction industry came right after several positive reports that were saying how the industry can rebound amid the economic crisis. According to the National Association of Home Builders, its measure of builders’ sentiment was able to reach its biggest one-month surge in five years in April. Even while in very record-setting and lowest levels, the National Association of Home Builders said that the index increased by 5 points to 14. This has been its highest reading since last October. The association also includes big companies in the construction industry, such as Centrex Corp. and Lennar Corp. Moreover, its membership base also includes hundreds of other builders across the whole country.
