US house prices rise by the most since 1991 as US mortgage lenders record their biggest quarter in two decades To see the latest data on softwood lumber prices and US housing starts please go here. The median price for previously owned homes has hit a new record at US$313,000, up +16% from a year ago, the US National Association of Realtors said Thursday. There are fewer homes for sale in the US today than ever recorded in data going back nearly…
US Housing Total Starts October 2020 & Benchmark Softwood Lumber Prices November 2020 New home building in the US surged up by +5% to an annual rate of 1.530 million in October 2020 after soaring by +6.3% to an upwardly revised rate of 1.459 million in September. As in previous months, the increase was driven by single-family starts, which rose by +6.4% to 1.18 million. Compared to the same month a year ago, US housing starts in October 2020 were…
The latest housing starts report by the US Commerce Department, released Wednesday, said new home building in the US surged up by +5% to an annual rate of 1.530 million in October 2020 after soaring by +6.3% to an upwardly revised rate of 1.459 million in September. US housing starts continue to defy expectations in October 2020 As in previous months, the increase was driven by single-family starts, which rose by +6.4% to 1.18 million. By contrast, starts in the…
The trend in Canadian housing starts was 222,734 units in October 2020, up from 214,372 units in September 2020, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Tuesday. This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts. Canadian housing starts rose +3% in October compared with the previous month as an increase in detached urban starts outweighed a small decrease in multiple urban starts. Single-detached urban starts were up +14% to 57,788…
As market conditions stabilized, some North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices fell further, others were flat, and still others actually rose somewhat. After a few weeks of seeming free-fall, most lumber prices stabilized last week as the supply-demand balance corrected nicely. Suppliers in Canada and the US saw more orders coming in as end-users continued to run on extremely weak inventories. Buyer reluctance in the past few weeks, while prices were falling and production remained high, evaporated. Customers…
Every metro area in the United States tracked by the US National Association of Realtors® during 3Q 2020 saw home prices increase from a year ago, according to NAR’s latest quarterly report, released Thursday. Single-family existing home prices rose in all measured metro areas in 3Q 2020. 65% of metro areas had double-digit price gains. The monthly mortgage payment on a typical single-family home rose to US$1,059 and the family income needed to afford a home rose to US$50,819. The proportion…
In a reversal from most of this year, US sawmill capacity utilization rates fell in August 2020 compared to September while those in Canada improved from the previous month. Compared to one-year-ago, for January – August 2020 softwood lumber production in the US remained higher than last year, up another +3%, says the latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track. In the first eight months of this year, US lumber production volume was 24,392 mfbm compared…
In keeping with unusually high softwood lumber prices for the season and a seemingly-unstoppable US real estate market, the latest US construction spending data provides further insight. Total Construction: Total US construction spending during September 2020 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$1,414 billion, basically flat compared to the revised August estimate of $1,410 billion, said the US Census Bureau November 2. The September figure is +1.5% above the September 2019 estimate of US$1,393 billion. During the…
North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices did correct down a bit more last week, however demand remained quite strong for the time of year while supply was still quite constrained. Customers called around to sawmills and secondary suppliers, at wholesalers and reloads, in search of the wood they needed for ongoing projects. Producers were still spending quite some time locating bits and pieces of wood for customer fill-in needs, but there was also a resurgance of new orders…
The US unemployment rate made another sizeable drop, falling to 6.9% from 7.9% in September. US nonfarm payrolls rose by +638,000 in October compared to September, slightly ahead of market expectations, reported the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday. The stronger than expected job growth came as notable job gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction more than offset a steep drop in government employment. US construction employment posted a healthy gain in October…