Many shifting, integrated dynamics make it difficult to maintain a strong, resilient organization serving the housing industry. This year, Hanley Wood's HIVE conference is putting forth a line up of speakers and programming that address many of the challenges highlighted in this article from Forbes.
The United States is currently waging a tariff war with China, a war that promises escalating costs to manufacturers and is now at a point that will be come at a cost to American consumers as well – one estimate by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that the average US household will be paying an additional $831 annually due to the impending tariffs.
The tariffs are one lever that the government is using to invigorate domestic manufacturing, which would also stimulate the national job market. This just so happens to be something that housing is good at and something that housing has been doing for a long time. Not only does housing support local labor markets, it also is a major factor in stimulating local economies.
According to Metrostudy, a provider of primary and secondary market information to the residential construction industry, the Houston metroplex expects 40,968 housing starts in 2019. An April 2015 report from the National Association of Home Builders, “The Economic Impact of Home Building in a Typical Local Area,” says that the estimated one-year impact of building 100 single-family homes generates $28.7 million in local income, $3.6 million in taxes and other government revenue and 394 local jobs. So, the 40,968 housing starts in Houston would translate to $11.8 billion in local income, $1.5 billion in taxes and 161,414 jobs.
Metrostudy forecasts 33,779 starts for Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; 25,005 for Atlanta-Sandy Springs- Roswell; 23,350 for Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale; and 16,748 in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford; and these housing numbers don’t even meet the demand. But what is holding back the needed supply?
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