Construction industry

The sector is well-positioned for further volume growth into next year, analysts led by Anthony Pettinari said in a note to clients Monday.

"I do believe you'll begin to see some improvement, or increases, in new housing as we head into the back half of the year," Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said in an interview. "We're hearing optimistic stuff from the builders we deal with."

Residential starts fell 8% last month to a 1.43 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday.

Despite the improvement in sentiment, the homebuilder index remains below end-of-2021 levels, when mortgage rates were lower

With new construction activity at the highest level in more than a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow tracker is projecting residential investment added 0.1% to growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter.

Alimited supply of existing homes continued to spark interest in new construction, the National Association of Home Builders found.

The popular notion that any downturn this year will be mild by historical standards as firms seek to "hoard" labor is about to be put to the test.

An index tracking the industry is up 28% so far this year coming off of one of its worst years since 2018.

U.S. homebuilder sentiment rose for a fourth month in April as limited resale inventory helped drive demand for new houses, suggesting the residential real estate market is slowly recovering.

Residential starts rose 9.8% last month to a 1.45 million annualized rate, the fastest in five months, according to government data released Thursday