Home Builder Business Shows Little Sign of Slowing

The latest Builder Intelligence Report, compiled by BTIG in partnership with HomeSphere, continues to bring good news. Results showed November was another strong month for home builder business, with half of respondents reporting a year over year increase in orders.

While the data is helped by weak numbers in the fourth quarter of 2018, survey results indicate that business shows little sign of slowing in the last quarter of 2019.

Highlights from the latest Builder Intelligence Report 

Sales and traffic. Though trends decelerated a bit from October, 51 percent of respondents also reported year over year increases in traffic. That compares to 58 percent last month and 20 percent in November 2018. Fifty-three percent of respondents reported year over year increases in orders in October, while 23 percent reported increases for that same time in 2018.

Expectations. More builders continue to report sales and traffic above expectations with 39 percent reporting sales as better than expected while 19 percent reported sales as worse than expected.

Pricing and incentives. Pricing waned slightly with the holidays approaching. Thirty-eight percent of builders reported raising “most/all” or “some” of their base prices compared to 39 percent last month. Twenty-seven percent raised “most/all” or “some” sales incentives compared to 19 percent in October.

Input costs. Only 23 percent of builders reported increases month over month in subcontractor costs, which is the lowest read of the year. Thirty-six percent of respondents reported rising month over month material costs compared to 31 percent in October.

HomeSphere/BTIG Builder Intelligence Report

HomeSphere partners with the research firm BTIG to create a monthly report to provide our builders and manufacturers with exclusive and timely insights about the market.

To compile the report, we survey HomeSphere’s 2,600 regional and local home builders about sales, traffic, pricing, labor costs and other key industry metrics.

How to get the monthly report

If you are a builder and would like to participate and receive the monthly report for free, request an invitation below: