Quikrete Industry Dashboard - (Week 51, 2024)

The jam-packed Week 51 edition of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard shows U.S. average gas prices are down again, albeit slightly ($3.04), from last month ($3.06). Pump prices have recede a bit compared to last year's nationwide average of $3.08 in late-December 2023, per AAA's data.

This week's Dashboard also reveals that the latest (unadjusted) November retail sales for NAICS 444 entities (building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers) totaled $40.7 billion, down sharply from the $45.1 billion racked up last month (October 2024). However, November 2024's figures are up year-over-year from November 2023's sales of $39.7 billion. Meanwhile, the latest NAICS 44413 (hardware stores) sales figures, from October 2024, totaled $3.68 billion, which is up compared to September 2024's tally of $3.34 billion and also higher than October 2023's $3.46 billion.  

Elsewhere, November's total home starts (1,289,000) are down from October (1,312,000). Single-family starts jumped, however. November surpassed the single-family million mark (1,011,000) compared to October's revised figure of 950,000.

Existing home sales also jumped in November, with the National Realtors Association reporting they rose by 4.8 percent in November 2024 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.15 million. NAR says that's the biggest monthly figure posted since March (4.22 million). It's also the largest year-over-year gain since June 2021 (+23 percent). (Click here for a regional breakdown of existing home sales data.)