Demographics

  • Working Women

    A new book helps builders attract female home buyers.

     
  • Illegal Immigration Decline Will Hit Housing as It Rebounds

    Illegal immigration is on the decline according to the Pew Hispanic Center, and its impact on residential construction, already being felt, will be magnified once housing emerges from its doldrums.

     
  • 12.5 Percent of Those Living in New Homes Did Not Have Down Payment

    Census asks about source and amount of down payment for first time in American Housing Survey.

     
  • Census: U.S. Housing Stock Now Numbers 128 Million Units

    Majority of American housing located in suburbs.

     
  • Meet the American Homeowner, c. 2007

    Owner-occupied homes with a mortgage accounted for 51.6 million, or 46 percent, of the nation's 112 million occupied housing units in 2007, according to new data.

     
  • The Rise of Non-Traditional Households

    Census data shows continued rise in households headed by single men, single women.

     
  • Immigrants Maintain Larger Households

    Builders will need to construct larger homes to attract the foreign-born, which represented more than 12 percent of the U.S. population in 2007.

     
  • A Modest Home Remains National Norm

    The typical American home, be it owned or rented, contains a median of 5.5 rooms, according to Census data.

     
  • National Homeownership Rate Hovers at 68.1 Percent

    A significant decline in homeownership is being seen in the West, according to the Census Bureau.

     
  • Boomers Plan to Stay in Current Homes

    AARP survey finds 29 percent of baby boomers have made changes to homes so they can live there longer.

     
  • Waste Not, Want Not

    In late October, Prescott, Ariz., auctioned 2,274 acre-feet of effluent for more than $67 million. One month later, a huge plant in Orange County, Calif., began purifying sewerage, including runoff and household waste, into drinking water and is projected to produce 70 million gallons a day that is...

     
  • Do the Math

    When C.P. Morgan Communities chose Charlotte, N.C., as its first expansion market, in 2004, it selected it from 25 cities the builder had analyzed along seven statistical categories and 25 subcategories. Since entering Charlotte, the builder has broken down that metropolis into 20 submarkets and...

     
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    A Dry Season

    A 2003 United Nation report made a grim prediction: More than half of humanity will be living with water shortages within 50 years. That same year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said 36 states expected to suffer water shortages in the subsequent decade. Those predictions have come to...

     
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    Directional Signals

    Ask builders where they'd like to expand, or start over (which is more likely the case these days), and eventually they'll mention these and a few other markets, all for the same reason: strong job growth that promises steady home sales for years to come.

     
  • Consumer Spending Slows in October

    Personal income in the U.S. rose by two-tenths of 1 percent in October, a slower rate than most economists had predicted and another indication that troubles in the housing and credit markets could be spilling into the general economy. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates...

     
  • New-Home Sales Rebound Slightly in October

    Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Thursday morning shows that new-home sales bounced back in October-thanks to a generous adjustment to September's data to show a pace of just 716,000. The figure originally reported last month was much...

     
  • Updated: New-Home Sales Stay Low

    New-home sales hit 770,000 in September, according to data released today by The United States Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. September's numbers are 23.3 percent below the September 2006 level of 1.004 million homes. New-home sales for August were adjusted down...

     
  • Housing Starts, Permits Continue to Plunge

    Construction continues to stall as housing starts dropped 10.2 percent in September, while building permit activity plummeted 7.3 percent, according to a joint report from the Commerce Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday. The monthly report revealed that...

     
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    Southern Developer Unveils $75 Million Plan

    Next January, the Lane Co., an Atlanta-based multifamily real estate firm, will begin construction on a $75 million, 18-acre project that would include 342 for-rent apartments and 57 for-sale townhouses, located within walking distance of the city's ambitious Beltline redevelopment, which is being...

     
  • Shea Homes Enters Florida Market

    Shea Homes, a private home builder based in Walnut, Calif., announced on Tuesday that it has entered the Florida home building market. Victoria Gardens, a gated, active adult community located between Orlando and Daytona Beach, will offer five models for viewing beginning in early 2008. According...