Final Words

 
Year-to-date figures for total construction starts through September 2023 indicate a 3% decline compared to September 2022. Residential and non-residential starts decreased by 17% and 7%, respectively, while non-building starts saw a 25% increase. Over the 12 months ending in September 2023, total construction starts remained unchanged. Non-building starts showed a notable 22% surge, and non-residential building starts increased by 3%. However, residential starts experienced a 16% decline over this 12-month period.
In contrast, the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose by 1.1% to 72.6 in September, but year-over-year pending transactions fell by 11%. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) projects a 17.5% decrease in existing-home sales for 2023, reaching 4.15 million, followed by a 13.5% increase to 4.71 million in 2024. Median existing-home prices are projected to remain stable at $386,700 in 2023, with a slight increase of 0.7% to $389,500 in 2024. Housing starts are anticipated to decrease by 10.4% from 2022 to 2023, reaching 1.39 million, before rebounding to 1.48 million, a 6.5% increase, in 2024 according to NAR's predictions. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist explained, "Recent weeks' successive declines in mortgage rates will help qualify more home buyers, but limited housing inventory is significantly preventing housing demand from fully being satisfied." https://tinyurl.com/Construction-Starts-23 https://tinyurl.com/Existing-Home-Sales-23