NAHB NEWS Millennials Leading Growth Of New Home Buyers A s the housing industry celebrates New Homes Month in April, recent data from the Census Bureau confirms that millennials are increasingly entering the housing market as first-time buyers. The homeownership rate of millennials—now at 36 percent—registered the largest gains among all age groups in 2017. As the nation’s largest demographic group, more than 70 million millennials are poised to dominate the home buying market in the months and years ahead. “Millennials are recognizing the benefits of homeownership and are eager to buy their first homes,” said National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chairman Randy Noel, a custom home builder from LaPlace, La. “And contrary to conventional wisdom, this generation is in the market for single-family homes in the suburbs as they look ahead to raising their families.” Home builders recognize the changing demographics and the increasing demand for entry-level homes. Yet rising construction costs and limited lot availability create significant challenges to building smaller, single-family detached homes that are both affordable to first-time buyers and cost-effective for builders. With millennials willing to compromise on space, townhouses are offering a more affordable option for younger buyers ready to purchase their first homes. After experiencing a drop during the Great Recession, the share of new townhome construction has been rising since 2009. According to NAHB analysis of Census data, townhome construction in 2017 was up seven percent from 2016. Millennials also are looking for homes with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, outdoor space, flexible areas that can be used for a variety of purposes and more luxurious finishes, like quartz countertops. Read More Diversifying the Industry’s Workforce to Address the Labor Shortage A s the residential construction industry continues to grapple with a severe labor shortage, one solution is clear to many industry leaders. “You have a potential labor force that is underutilized – women,” said NAHB’s former Professional Women in Building (PWB) Council Chair Juli Bacon during a roundtable discussion at the 2018 International Builders’ Show in Orlando. While the industry is making progress in reintroducing the trades in schools, it’s time to also think about how to expand the type of students being recruited. Women continue to make up a small percentage of the overall number of workers in the construction industry — about 9%, according to National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) — prompting some industry leaders to examine what can be done to remove obstacles that are preventing more women from pursuing careers in residential construction. “I think some of it has to do with being able to tell a story to women in a way that might be a little bit different than telling that story to young men,” said panelist Heather Stafford Gay, CAPS, MPA, Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis Read More 22 HBRA of Fairfield County | APRIL 2018 NAHB Study Shows Steady Gains In Construction Employment, But Levels Remain Below Peak A new construction employment analysis from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shows that 9.8 million people worked in construction in 2016, and more than 3.8 million of them worked in residential construction. These numbers reflect modest but steady job gains since 2011, when construction employment bottomed out. However, employment levels remain below the peaks reached during the housing boom in 2006, when more than 11 million worked in construction, and home building employed more than 5 million people. “While it is promising to see that residential construction employment is on the rise, it is still far below where we need to be to meet the increasing demand for housing,” said NAHB Chairman Randy Noel, a custom home builder from LaPlace, La. “We will continue to push for programs and policies that address the labor shortage, such as workforce development initiatives and comprehensive immigration reform.” NAHB’s analysis also shows the number of home building jobs across states and congressional districts. California tops the nation in employment of residential construction workers—more than half a million residents worked in home building in 2016. This number is still down significantly from the 2006 peak of 788,000, though. Despite being one of the states most severely affected by the housing downturn, Florida comes in second with 361,000 residential construction workers. Read More
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