The Quikrete Industry Dashboard

It was a tough week for housing numbers as both housing starts and existing-home sales saw declines for August.

On the new residential construction front, total housing starts dropped 11.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.283 million compared to the revised July estimate of 1.447 million. The latest figure, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is also 14.8% below the August 2022 rate of 1.505 million.

Single‐family housing starts in August fell to a rate of 941,000, down 4.3% from the prior month. Data for multifamily starts was even more harsh with the rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 334,000, dropping more than 26% from the July rate and plummeting 41% from the August 2022 rate of 566,000.

While existing-home sales slipped by just 0.7% in August to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.04 million on a month-over-month basis, year-over-year sales declined 15.3%, the National Association of Realtors reported today. Total existing-home sales include completed transactions of single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops.

Single-family existing-home sales for August dipped by 1.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.60 million from 3.65 million in July.

At the gas pumps, the average national price for a gallon of gas is about even from where it was a week ago. But on a month-over-month basis, the average gallon price is up nearly 20 cents. 

Western states are feeling the biggest impact with the average price per gallon reaching $5.78 in California, $5.05 in Nevada, and nearly $5.04 in Washington.