Share Of Women In Construction At An All Time High

U.S. construction spending for commercial and residential projects dipped in December, its first retreat since June, according to the  Census Bureau . Construction outlays totalled $1.328 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, compared with an upwardly revised $1.330 trillion in the prior month. The December rate was 5% higher than a year earlier. For all of 2019, construction spending fell 0.3%, the first annual decline since 2011, after rising 3.3% in 2018. Looking only at residential construction, seasonally adjusted annualized spending rose to  $548 billion , a gain of 1.4% from the prior month and 5.8% from a year earlier. Homebuilders are spending more as their confidence rises. A measure of homebuilder sentiment, the Housing Market Index,  revealed  confidence spiked to a 10-year high during the month. According to the  National Association of Home Builders  and  Wells Fargo,  which put out the monthly sentiment ...

1. Professional-Looking Faucets Just about every brand showing kitchen faucets at Design & Construction Week  seemed to have a professional-style kitchen faucet with a spring. Kohler launched its Graze line of faucets, including the Semi-Professional design shown here, which has a tight coil hose to allow for easier cleaning.  Graze faucets are available in polished chrome, stainless steel and matte black. Pfister’s new Neera Culinary faucet, left, capitalizes on the demand for professional-looking kitchen faucets. Photo by Erin Carlyle The new Neera Culinary faucet from Pfister (shown here in brushed gold) has a three-function spray head and a highly visible spring that echoes the style of a restaurant kitchen faucet. “The spring is extremely popular right now,” says Danyel Tiefenbacher, brand manager at Pfister. The Neera comes in polished chrome, stainless, matte black and brushed gold. Erin Carlyle American Standard’s new  Semi-Professional ...

Across the U.S., homes that are built within walking distance of schools, shopping, parks and other urban amenities sell for an average of 23.5%, or $77,668, more than comparable properties that are car-dependent, according to a study from  Redfin . (There’s a similar premium for  proximity to public transportation .) To determine walkability and what it’s worth, Redfin compared sale prices and Walk Score rankings for nearly 1 million homes sold last year across 16 major U.S. metropolitan areas and two Canadian cities. As it turns out, walkable homes are a hot commodity. Redfin found that only about a quarter of active listings are considered walkable, or have a Walk Score ranking of 50 to 100. “Properties that are more affordable are seeing the most demand and price growth right now, and homes in less walkable neighborhoods often fall into this category,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said. “There just aren’t as many people who can afford walkable neighborho...

Millennials are buying homes. This much is known. But, despite the much-discussed generation making their  entrance  into the housing market, many still are still very uneasy about the process. To try to get into the minds of millennials,  TD Bank  surveyed more than 850 millennials (which it categorizes as age 23-38) who are planning to buy their first home in 2020. According to TD Bank’s First-Time Homebuyer Pulse, 68% said they think now is the right time to buy a home and 52% are actively searching home listings online. But, 75% of first-time Millennial homebuyers admit they’re overwhelmed by the process of buying a home. As for what’s weighing on millennials’ minds, the answers vary. (Image courtesy of TD Bank. Click to enlarge.) Just over half of those surveyed said they are worried about their job stability when it comes to looking for somewhere to live. Meanwhile, 35% said they are thinking about their relationship with their significant other,...

The law of supply and demand is on full display in the housing market right now, as the  ongoing shortage  of available homes for sale is coupling with a surge of homebuyers to  push home prices up  at the fastest rate in years, according to  Redfin . Despite buyers coming out of winter hibernation  earlier than usual , sellers are  few and far between these days, Redfin said.  In fact, there were only 1.4 million units available for sale in December, the lowest level in at least 20 years, according to the  National Association of Realtors . Beyond that, December saw the  largest year-over-year decline  of housing inventory in almost three years, with inventory declining 12%, according to  realtor.com . This is heating up the homebuying competition early in the new year. Also contributing to the stiff competition is lower mortgage rates – which are now the  second-lowest they have been in three years. That’s dri...

Pending home sales in December fell 4.9% from the prior month, the largest decline in almost a decade, according to a report Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors . The seasonally adjusted index measuring signed contracts fell because of a shortage of homes on the market, according to Lawerence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. It was the largest drop since May 2010, according to the data. “The state of housing in 2020 will depend on whether homebuilders bring more affordable homes to the market,” Yun said. “Home prices and even rents are increasing too rapidly, and more inventory would help correct the problem and slow price gains.” Yun said the markets where listing prices are around $250,000 have the strongest demand, including Fort Wayne, Indiana, Burlington, North Carolina, Topeka, Kansas, Pueblo, Colorado, and Columbus, Ohio. All U.S. regions saw pending home sales fall in December, Yun said. The Northeast, including Massachusetts and New Hampshire, slipped 4.0...

Was one of the nation’s largest landlords running a Ponzi-type scheme that involved shuffling money from investors to other investors and falsifying loan documents? Federal authorities  certainly  think so. The  Securities and Exchange Commission  announced last week that it obtained a federal court order mandating Robert Morgan to repay more than $63 million to individuals who invested in Morgan’s real estate companies. According to the SEC, Morgan, a New York residential and commercial real estate developer, and two of his entities,  Morgan Mezzanine Fund Manager  and  Morgan Acquisitions , engaged in a fraudulent real estate investment scheme. The SEC claims that one of the ways Morgan financed his real estate development projects was through the sales of securities to more than 200 retail investors, many of whom invested through their retirement accounts. Morgan allegedly told the investors that their money would be used to improve multifa...