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US Housing Starts Rise: April 2019
According to estimates from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and Commerce Department released Thursday, single-family and multifamily starts in the US improved in April, consistent with the recent stabilization of the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Single-family starts increased +6.2% to an 854,000 seasonally adjusted annual pace in April. Total multifamily starts increased +4.7%…
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US Spending on Residential Improvements: Feb 2019
The most recent data, released Tuesday, from Construction Spending showed that spending on US residential improvements fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$173 billion in March 2019, -14.1% lower than a year ago. RA very important segment to sawmills and lumber manufacturers, residential Improvement Spending in the US has experienced weakness after reaching the peak of…
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North America Softwood Lumber Production, Sawmill Capacity Utilization, WWPA: February 2019
The latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track, for January-February 2019, shows a +2.1% increase in US softwood lumber production volume, to 5,780 mmfbm, compared to 5,659 million board feet (mmfbm) for the first two months of last year. There was a +3.3% increase for full-year 2018. January – February softwood…
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Softwood Lumber Prices Slowly Recover from Recent Lows: May 2019
Some wholesaler (net FOB sawmill) standard construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices rebounded slightly last week from recent lows, while most prices remained flat from the end of April. While reasonable amounts of wood are being traded, demand could hardly be regarded as lush. Sellers, whether producers or secondary suppliers, had plenty of lumber commodity…
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US Construction Employment & Construction Spending: March 2019
Total nonfarm payroll employment in the US increased by 263,000 in April, while the unemployment rate declined to 3.6%. Residential construction employment increased by 600 in April, after the increase of 11,200 jobs in March. The total construction industry (both residential and nonresidential) gained 33,000 jobs in April. Additionally, the latest monthly employment data released…
