2017 Single-Family Forecast

If you're a single-family homebuilder, you'll be glad to hear that industry analysts anticipate that 2017 will be a strong year for sales of new single-family homes. Dodge Data & Analytics predicts that single-family starts will increase 9 % next year to 795 000 homes. The National Association of Realtors is more cautious, predicting that we'll see 620 000 new home sales – a significant increase from the estimated 570 000 in 2016.

Industry watchers think that the coming year will be steadier than 2016, which witnessed a number of wild swings. For example, the number of housing starts in October 2016 was the highest monthly total since the early 1980s, but new starts cratered in November.

The new administration in Washington has promised to cut business taxes and slash regulations. While it's true that lower taxes will benefit single-family builders, they'll have minimal impact on the multifamily market. That's because many apartment operators are organized as real estate investment trusts (REITs), which already avoid most corporate taxes. Moreover, most of the regulations in the housing industry are on the state and local level, not federal.

The industry consensus is that the economy will perform slightly better this year, with modest increases in both Gross Domestic Product and job growth. As always, LP Building Products is prepared to support single-family builders in 2017 with our full line of engineered wood framing, panels and siding products. Check out some of our case studies showing how single-family homebuilders have used our products in application!