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US Housing Starts and Softwood Lumber Prices: February 2019
Total US housing starts posted an -8.7% decrease in February, to 1.162 million units, compared to an upwardly revised January estimate of 1.273 million units, according to the joint data release Tuesday from the US Census Bureau and HUD. Relative to February 2018, total starts are -9.9% below the annual pace of 1.29 million units.The…
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Pent-Up Demand, Transportation Woes Keep Softwood Lumber Inventories Stocked
Most lumber talk was about the fabulous Montreal Wood Convention last week, a great event which draws sawmill industry folks together every year. Players there reported well-stocked inventories but a lag in production because deliveries to many parts of the US were stymied. Severe flooding has taken over large swaths of the midwest and the…
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US Home Builders’ Profit Margins: 2017
Writes the US National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Friday, typically, one of the best-kept secrets in a private company is the share of total revenue that stays in the company after paying all operating costs and expenses – also known as net profit margin. NAHB periodically conducts the Builders’ Cost of Doing Business Study…
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US Existing Home Sales: February 2019
Important data for North America softwood lumber manufacturers is out Friday; US existing home sales for February 2019. After three consecutive months of decline, existing home sales in the US, released by the National Association of Realtors, rebounded strongly in February. This is the largest monthly gain since December 2015. Total existing home sales in…
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US Home Builder Challenges: 2019 Survey
Building material prices topped the list of problems builders in the United States faced in 2018, but cost and availability of labour is expected to return to the number one spot in 2019, according to special questions on the January survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The survey results, released Monday, showed that material…
