The Quikrete Industry Dashboard

It was a busy week of major industry metrics for the latest Quikrete Industry Dashboard.

Here’s a breakdown of this week’s key industry reports:

• The latest Monthly Sales report for December 2023 from the U.S. Census Bureau puts sales figures for NAICS 444 retailers (building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers) at just under $500 billion for an unadjusted 12-month basis. That’s down 3% from 2022. 
   
• Total housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.460 million, falling 4.3% from the revised November estimate of 1.525 million, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported. Single-family housing starts fell 8.6% to a rate of 1.027 million below the revised November figure of 1.124 million. 
   
• Overall residential construction permits increased 1.9% to a 1.50 million unit annualized rate in December and are up 6.1% higher compared to December 2022. Single-family permits increased 1.7% to a 994,000 unit rate and up 32.9% compared to the previous year.
   
• December 2023 existing-home sales slipped by 1% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.78 million. On a year-over-year basis, sales declined 6.2% compared to the 4.03 million in December 2022.
   
• At gas pumps across the nation, AAA reports that the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline ticked upward to $3.09 on Jan. 18, 2024, compared to Dec. 18, 2023. But prices remain well below an average of $3.36 on Jan. 18, 2023.