Are expensive building materials the DC -Woningmarkt pain?
Canadian wood dependence
The costs of building amount to labor costs and material costs. The price of building materials such as wood is usually standardized on American local supply and demand changes can cause small -scale price variations, but considerable increases are felt nationally.
Dustin Jalbert, senior economist of wood products for MastarketsInsights offered in how much the US depends on Canadian softwood material.
“Canadian wood is good for something like a quarter of the domestic softwood wood consumption here in the US. We need that offer to erase the hardware store,” Jalbert said in an interview with Housing.
The dependence on the US on Canadian wood can cause problems if there is a disturbance within the supply chain. Consider that recent changes in government policy in mind. Jalbert said that rates can cause problems and that the US may not have an alternative option.
“Any disruption of the Canadian wood supply – such as via rates – can lead to considerable price increases and delivery shortages. Despite the fact that the US has domestic alternatives such as southern yellow pines, these materials are not perfect replacements,” Jalbert said.
“As a result, losing access to Canadian wood can further increase the challenges with which the hardware store is confronted, increases costs and the efforts to meet the demand for new housing,” he added.
Response to material scarcity
Tight housing markets With great demand, builders and developers give the leeway to pass on consumers with relatively ease higher costs.
Jalbert also explained that the decreasing demand in markets such as Austin makes it difficult for builders to increase prices without risking their sales volume.
“Contractors in a place like Austin will not have much leverage to pass on those building material costs,” he said. “The possibility of transferring costs to consumers is influenced by local market conditions, including stock levels and buyer competence.”
Regarding the connection to the DC market, Jalbert characterized it as one that “is still pretty tight, and the demand is high. Contractors can have an easier time to pass on some of those costs to the Homebuyer.”
With the insights of Jalbert in mind, let’s dive into this week’s Altos and determine whether the question is really high on the DC home market.
In anticipation of the sale of a home, it is increasing again
Altos’ weekly hanging contract data help to visualize the demand on the DC -Woningmarkt. Let’s look at the last four weeks of hanging sales data for home.
- Week of February 21: 596
- Week of February 28: 598
- Week of March 7: 629
- Week of March 14: 847
In anticipation of the sale of houses, it has risen again, which is a sign that the demand is stable on the DC home market. But what do new entries look like? And what percentage of these entries is new construction? Let’s look at that in the next section.
New lists are rising for the second consecutive week
Altos assesses information about real estate entries to determine the seller’s activities on the DC home market. New entries are the houses that were for sale in a certain week and were added to the active inventory.
New entries were flown in during the week that ended on March 14. About 674 single -family homes and 619 condominiums are on the market in DC that is an increase of around 12% compared to the previous week. New entries increase volume during spring and sellers seem to be active.
New construction is also common in the DC area. From March 21, there were 449 new construction statements in the region, according to IDX data for the DC -Woningmarkt.
The IDX data is updated irregularly, but in October 2024 there were 412 new -build homes on the market. If Trump’s rates remain steady, this number may fall and prices will rise as a result. Here are the historical data for new offers:
Stock levels are higher again
This week’s data about Inventory in the DC -Woningmarkt offer a window to current market trends.
The inventory for single-family homes on the DC home market has risen to 4,024, which has risen 6.36% compared to the week before. Last week’s data show a similar increase, so the upward trend seems to be consistent.
Where does the DC market go?
Price cuts were the same as the week before, according to Altos. The percentage of houses with price reductions is 26%, which is historically low compared to what was seen at the same point last year.
Price reductions are an important question indicator and they are usually the earliest indicator of unrest on the DC home market.
Jalbert said that 25% rates will influence Canadian and Mexican goods, although it is unlikely that they will last in the long term. Nevertheless, mutual rates that come into effect on 2 April can come into effect, which influences industries such as construction that already suffers from a labor shortages.
“If you are talking about stagflation, there may be a one-time punch of higher costs for building materials. And if we see a sustainable effort to perform deportations of employees without papers that are a considerable part of the construction work-that really limits our ability to build houses,” he said.
