Is a Trucker Shortage In the Near Future?
Industrial Distribution takes a look at what is expected in the near future for the transportation industry which certainly could affect your business.
Read More at Industrial Distribution
12 Takeaways From The REMODELING 550
Craig Webb, editor-in-chief of REMODELING and PROSALES, shares his favorite insights from the REMODELING 550 report.
Residential Construction: One of Small Business’s Fastest-Growing Industries
DWM reviews a recent report by Sageworks, a financial information company, which ranks residential building construction as the ninth-fastest-growing industry for small businesses.
July Gains for Residential Construction Spending
NAHB analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending for July continued to increase, rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $387 billion. On a month-over-month basis, private single-family spending was $218 billion, up by 2.1% over the revised June estimate. Private multifamily spending declined to $52 billion, down by 2.2%, after three months of consecutive gains.
Could New Orleans Handle Another Katrina?
After Hurricane Katrina flooded low-lying parts of New Orleans in 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers spent billions of dollars repairing and improving the ring of levees that encircles the city. The Corps considers the project a success — and so does the National Flood Insurance Program, which doesn’t require insurance or mandate homes to be raised within the city’s protective ring.
E-Commerce is Now Mostly Mobile. How Is Your Company Site Incorporating Responsive Design?
Has your website kept up with the times? A report from comScore shows that we are now past the “mobile Tipping Point,” at which the majority of media consumption is done on mobile devices rather than desktops. A KCPB report also shows that people are now spending longer times per day consuming media on mobile devices instead of desktops.
New Home Sales Up 5.4% in July
NAHB is reporting Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 5.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 507,000 units in July, according to newly released data from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Our builders are reporting higher traffic and more serious buyers, and are adding inventory in anticipation of future business,” said Tom Woods, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo.
Increase for Single-Family Built-for-Rent Construction
According to NAHB, Single family homes built-for-rent increased to approximately 8,000 starts for the second quarter of 2015, compared to about 6,000 for the same period of 2014. The share and count of built-for-rent starts are off post-recession highs and will likely approach historical norms as the housing market continues to expand. However, given the relatively small size of this market, care must be taken when tracing changes in the estimates.
FLASH Calls for Stronger Building Code Adoption and Enforcement
Claims Journal reports that the Florida-based consumer advocacy group, Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH), provides recommendations in its latest paper, Disaster Resilience Rising Means the Time is Right<http://www.flash.org/disasterresiliencerising.pdf>, for strengthening the U.S. building code system through the development of disaster resilience policies that mitigate damage before a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina strikes. And one of the most fundamental elements to disaster resilience, according to FLASH, is having states and local jurisdictions updating, adopting, and enforcing the latest and greatest building codes. The authors of the paper write, “…institutionalizing older codes can handicap communities ‘ efforts to achieve resilience.” FLASH proposes in its paper six innovations to the current U.S. building code system. Claims Journal summarizes what those are in the article. Read More >
What the Presidential Candidates Have Done for the Housing Sector
What have this election cycle’s candidates done when it comes to housing? DWM magazine has put together a list of what we could find on each candidate and their history with the housing market.
