A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (reposted on Realtor.com) discusses how the home building industry is struggling with global supply-chain woes, pandemic-related factory closures, transportation delays and port-capacity limits. These issues have constricted the flow of many goods & materials critical for home building, including windows, garage doors, appliances and even paint. They point out that delivery delays can actually cause a domino effect forcing the rescheduling of things like work crews, which was already feeling the effects of a shortage of skilled tradespeople. Indeed…
Many builders are selling houses later in the construction process, when they can better predict their costs and schedule, said Ali Wolf, chief economist at Zonda. Some are limiting options for floor plans or design features. “In the home-building industry, timeline is king, because there are so many moving parts,” Ms. Wolf said.
Home builders have built up a huge backlog of uncompleted homes. The number of single-family homes currently under construction surged 28.3% in November from a year earlier to the highest seasonally adjusted level since 2007, according to the Commerce Department.
Click here to read the full story at Realtor.com
Click here to read the full story at the Wall Street Journal.
