Zelman Insights

In late April, the Department of Commerce announced countervailing duties, or a tariff, on imported softwood lumber from Canada, ranging from 3-24% for the largest producers and 20% for all other mills. The tariffs were largely expected by ...

Earlier this week, the Census Bureau published a report titled “The Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood: 1975-2016”, which analyzed changes in how young adults have been educated, started families and lived over the last ...

Beginning in 1Q15, we began tracking new home for-sale inventory across more than 20 production homebuilders, including the square footage offered as a way to better gauge investments and the willingness to cater to the under-served ...

In 2016, real GDP increased 1.6%, tying 2011 as the weakest growth of the last six years. At the same time, the S&P 500 equity index was up a strong 10%, the annual unemployment rate was the lowest level since 2007 and consumer confidence was ...

Every quarter, we publish in-depth macro housing forecasts and explanations covering single-family construction, multi-family construction, the existing housing market, home improvements and mortgage finance. With the release ...

Earlier this week, the New York Federal Reserve published a presentation on household debt with a focus on student loans. According to the analysis, there was $1.31 trillion of outstanding student debt at the end of 2016, up 50% over the last ...

Unlike in the single-family market where permits and starts are largely reflective of current demand, on the multi-family side, permits and starts are influenced by current demand but they are still speculative in nature given that the product ...

Over the last year, several Asian companies have gone on a buying spree of private U.S. homebuilders, including leading Japanese builder Sekisui House’s recent purchase of Woodside Homes. The Woodside deal, valued at $468 million or roughly ...

Household formation is a phrase used to describe the net change in the number of households over a given period of time, essentially measuring incremental housing demand. Despite the importance of this measure to the housing market, in particular ...

In 2016, existing home sales increased 4%, which is consistent with the long-term median increase, despite a strong employment backdrop, accelerating household formations and elevated consumer confidence toward housing. Unfortunately, the market ...