Market Insights

There is an old curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Unfortunately for the economy, the last several years have been “interesting times.” Home improvement has weathered this storm better than some areas (notably new-home construction), but the industry has clearly been impacted. Twice a year the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) publishes a detailed size-of-market forecast for home improvement product sales.

Analysts were expecting a boost in November's residential construction data, but not this much of a boost.

The Commerce Department's residential construction report released Tuesday morning showed housing starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 -- that's 9.3% higher than the revised October estimate of 627,000 (revised from a previously released figure of 628,000). It's also the highest level of starts since April 2010. 

Compared with last year's near-record low, total housing starts were up 24.3%.

A survey of members of the American Hardware Manufacturers Association (AHMA) shows that the ongoing economic crisis in Europe has affected 52% of the businesses involved. Another 33% said they were unaffected. The remainder were unsure and not involved in European commerce.

Whether or not the housing sector of the home improvement industry is poised for growth split the survey respondents three ways: 41% said yes, 22% said no, and the remainder weren’t sure.

When most magazines make predictions, they are long forgotten by the time actual events reveal...

A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports has started to decline for the fall, and November is forecast at 1.9% below the same month last year.

The decrease is attributed to the fact that most retailers already have their holiday season merchandise either on their shelves or en route to their stores. 

A this booth in the International Builders’ Show, a purchasing executive with a top 20...

Of the 30 stocks tracked by the HBSDealer Stock Watch, 18 declined on Monday, with TREX and SHOS down more than 3%.

The first issue of National Home Center News—the precursor of Home Channel News—was published Jan....