The Reed Construction Data housing forecast is not changed by the April report. We still expect total housing starts to recover to 550,000-600,000 by the end of this year and 750,000-800,000 by the end of next year.  This means that residential jobsite construction activity will drop up to 5-10% more into early summer before homebuilders have both the customers and the credit to expand their work-in-process inventory in anticipation of rising sales.  In turn, this means that residential jobsite materials consumption will begin rising at the end of the summer leading to resumed growth in materials production soon after. But pricing will remain weak into early next year.

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11/06 - Contractors cut 62,000 more jobs in October, mostly for nonresidential building work

11/03 - Federal highway funding still “temporary”

11/02 - Housing gets another boost from Washington

10/30 - Initial jump in GDP growth will ebb

10/29 - Two cities illustrate divergence in regional economic growth

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