Building Market Intelligence

Where are we in the housing cycle? This, by far, is the question we get asked the most. It’s often framed with the metaphor of a nine-inning baseball game: What inning are we in? This question implies that markets move …

The RV industry is on pace for record RV shipments this year. The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) estimates that over 400,000 RVs1 will be shipped in 2016. About 9 million RVs are now on the road in the US, and …

    If you have any questions, please contact Danielle Leach at (847) 812-3925 or by email.

Over the last 22 consecutive months, we have characterized the new home markets in three mid-Atlantic MSAs (Baltimore, MD; Philadelphia, PA; and Richmond, VA) as Cold, even though each posted the highest annual employment growth in July since (at least) …

Those born in the 1970s have fallen from having a 4% higher than normal homeownership rate in 2004 to a 7% lower than normal homeownership rate today. The housing crisis hit the 1970s Balancers harder than any other generation. We …

Only half as many households as normal choose to live in rural areas these days. Using our definitions*, only 8% of household growth occurred in rural areas over the last five years, compared to the usual 17% of growth over …

I am a Sharer. At JBREC, we use the term Sharer to mean someone who was born in the 1980s and who is currently 26–35 today. There are 44 million of us in the US, and I have outlined our defining characteristics below: …

Homeowners are remodeling rather than moving. We know this because “big-ticket” remodeling revenue is surging, while homes for sale as a percentage of occupied households has hit an all-time low. Home builders and resale agents voice frustrations, while remodeling contractors …

High land prices in good locations generally force builders to build expensive homes. However, a number of builders have figured out how to build and sell entry-level homes to a growing demographic group. Builders are capitalizing on the rising number …