Housing inventory

Measures of current sales of single-family homes and prospective-buyer traffic, dropped to their lowest levels since the end of 2023.

Tariffs, the employment pool and requirements to tap financing are potential roadblocks that need to be addressed in order to increase new builds.

President Donald Trump said he would plow ahead with new tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Tuesday, a broadside against the two biggest US trading partners that underscores his push to remake global trade.

A Commerce Department investigation will examine whether exporters like Canada, Germany, and Brazil are dumping lumber into US markets at the expense of American economic prosperity and national security, officials said.

Purchases of new single-family homes decreased 10.5% last month to a 657,000 annualized rate, according to government data issued Wednesday.

A national gauge of prices rose 3.9% from a year earlier, according to data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.

Shares of all 18 members in the S&P Composite 1500 Homebuilding Index fell, sending the gauge to the lowest intraday level since December 2023, after results from luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. and key construction data Wednesday indicated the residential real estate market may be in store for more turbulence. 

New residential construction decreased 9.8% to an annualized pace of 1.37 million last month, slipping after a nearly 16% surge in December, according to government data released Wednesday.

Builder confidence had surged following Trump's election win but home financing costs stuck around 7% in recent months have sapped demand and sent builder stocks tumbling.

A $1 billion assessment announced Tuesday for California's FAIR Plan, the state-mandated insurer of last resort, is expected to drive up premiums as companies will likely pass some of the costs onto homeowners.